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The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

From the Cheap Seats

Published 2010-09-22T00:00:00Z”/>

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Lindsey Barrett

I have been stumped this entire week. With so many athletic events going on and news happening in the world of sports, I didn’t know what to write my column about.

Should I recap some of the college football games? Should I talk about the Wildcat soccer and volleyball games that went on over the weekend? Or should I write about how sad I am that Joe Torre won’t be the Dodgers’ manager after this season?

When I expressed this to my friend Nick, he calmly replied, “Write about hockey.”

Ice hockey, or any kind of hockey for that matter, is like golf to me &- I don’t understand it. Outside of the Mighty Ducks trilogy, I never really got into hockey as a kid.

I understand how exciting it can be, how intense some of the fights can get and that the trophy at the end of the season is called the Stanley Cup. That’s about it.

One thing I didn’t know was that two years ago the National Hockey League went on a “lock out” and basically didn’t have a season.

I didn’t know it was the first time a pro season had been cancelled in North America or that the lockout was caused by labor disputes, according to ESPN.

I didn’t know that the league and sport were able to bounce back and have now become more popular than ever.

The past Olympics helped boost the sport’s image and draw in more national fans, especially for the gold-medal game between the U.S. and Canada last year. Canada won with a score of 3-2 in overtime, but the loss still had a silver lining as that game helped show fans how exciting hockey can be.

The NHL has even moved preseason games to Europe, hoping to attract more fans worldwide.

In California, and especially in Chico, you usually play soccer when you’re younger. At least that’s how it was for me.

My parents put me in a soccer league the minute I was coordinated enough to kick. However, on the East Coast, as I have heard from a friend that lived there, most kids play hockey.

Although there isn’t an ice hockey team at Chico State, there is an inline club team.

The team was created in 1997 and has been to the National Collegiate Roller Hockey League National Championships five times, most recently last season, according to the team’s website.

Last season, the team got fourth in the regular season behind UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz, according to the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League website. It also finished second in playoffs behind UC San Diego. It was recently selected as the 2009-2010 Chico State Sport Clubs Team of the Year.

The new season will start in late October with a kick-off tournament in San Jose and will continue until March.

I think it is about time I opened my eyes to a new sport and became a fan of a game that most of the country has been getting excited about for awhile.

With the NHL preseason starting in late September, I think this is one bandwagon I may want to jump on.

Lindsey Barrett can be reached at

<a href= “mailto:[email protected]?subject=RE%3A%20From%20the%20Cheap%20Seats%2C%20Hockey%20catches%20my%20attention”> [email protected]</a>

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