New Ball Hockey Season Starts

Scott Lumson takes a shot on net during the Big Rock exhibition tournament at the Seoul Sports Complex, Sunday. The tournament was in lieu of the second season of the Big Rock League, which will start next weekend.

/ Courtesy of Matthew Graveline

By Matthew Graveline
Contributing Writer

Working in a foreign country and living in one of the biggest cities in the world, Seoul ex-pats can feel a long way from home.

Kurt deVries and several other veteran Canadian teachers who have been living in Seoul for almost a decade started Canada Ball Hockey Korea (CBHK) back in 2005 for this very reason.

Since that time, they have been trekking out to the Seoul Olympic Sports Complex to play on its inline hockey rink. Hockey is the one sport that brought them together as North Americans.

It has been four years since expats started dragging out worn out goalie equipment to exit 7 of the Sports Complex subway stop, but the biggest changes to the group has happened in just the last couple of months.

After a trip to Japan where a couple of the guys played in an international expat ball hockey tournament, the veteran players led by Scott Lumson and Edward Leahey decided to start a league. They wanted to start something that North American expats would come to see as a type of community while enjoying great hockey, and the Big Rock League was born.

Fifty-six players played in the first season.

This Sunday saw the league's membership almost double as ball hockey and ice hockey players came together from across the city to play in an exhibition tournament to promote the last week of registration for the second season of the league, which is to start next week.

Charles Fullerton is all too familiar with the hockey scene in Seoul.

Hailing from Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada, he led his teammates from the ice hockey team, the Incheon Geckos, into the tournament. Although the ice hockey team plays up north at Incheon from 8 to 10 p.m., Fullerton couldn't give up the chance to play against his old teammates.

He recounts how years ago he used to play with a couple of the veteran CBHK players when they were still playing on tennis courts and in dead-end streets.

``They are good games,'' Fullerton said, watching the tournament play. ``I'm impressed. I hope they have a couple more tournaments like this.''

Fullerton said the only reason his Incheon players hadn't joined up was because the ice hockey team also plays on Sunday and it would just be too busy.

By the end of the tournament, two to three members of the Incheon team had joined the league's draft list.

DeVries said at the beginning of the day that the league would have six teams this time around. At the beginning of the day, there were 68 players signed up for the league. It was deVries' hope that the league would get 76 players signed up by the end of the day so each team could have 12 players.

By the time the draft started at the Big Rock pub, the sponsor of the league, the list was up to 79 players with a new cap at 84 players for the new season.

But the league is not all just about hockey, insists Daniel Connolly, one of the captains.

``There is a need for it,'' he said. ``A lot of us have become good buddies.''

He points out that although the play on the rink is intense, players from all the teams often hang out after at the Big Rock pub and there have even been teams who have started to hang out outside of the league's weekends.

Connolly points to a hockey email as the best example of how the players have come together as a family. The email list was set up so players could coordinate league equipment and rides, but Connolly said it has become a social networking tool.

From people selling furniture or scooters to job availabilities and contract advice, Connolly points to this as the reason ex-pats need Big Rock.

But the league is not just an all-guys affair, says Michelle Matuszak.

As one of the three girls who played last season, she was thrilled to see more than a dozen women playing on the rink on Sunday.

But this Sunday was a sad day for Matuszak. As one of the teachers whose contract is up in three weeks' time, she is planning to backpack through Southeast Asia and one of the biggest things she said she will miss is the Big Rock family.

Although, she admits, being in a league with 53 guys was difficult at first, after they realized she was out to play she was adopted into the group.

``I feel like I'm now their little sister,'' she said. ``I'm going to miss this back home. There are ball hockey leagues but nothing like this. I could ask them for anything.''

The guys have been emailing her tips about what to do and what not to do on her backpacking trip, she said, and a couple of them have only known her for a month or two.

Laurie Fox is one of the new girls in the Big Rock league. She found out about it through the Web site Korea for Ex-Pats. She is a veteran English teacher, but new to Korea.

She said she likes how the league seems to have two tiers of play: the players who are out to win and the other group who are just out to have fun.

``Guys are great,'' she said. As the sister of two older brothers, she said she enjoys the macho sport-like atmosphere, but it's also nice that she has already made several friends with the other girls in the league.

``We are a mini girl posse,'' she said. ``We are very encouraging of more girls.''
But she has already found her favorite part about the league.

``Pushing sweaty guys up against the boards,'' she said, smiling.

Registration is open until the end of the week. To join, contact Cory Petitt at crpcrp2@yahoo.com But be aware: The player cut off is 84 for this season.

graveline.matthew@gmail.com

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