Anderson's Angle

After 11 years as the XHL President, I only have one more night to steer the ship for a league game night. While we prepare to hand out yet another set of trophies, it's impossible to not look back at the past as president.

Certainly the league was an experiment in the inaugural season of 2001. Just that winter I had put on ice skates for the first time and passed my first puck with Jim Miller on the frozen waters of Kyle Lake in Falls Creek. I think I fell in love with the game right away. The feel and the sound of the puck hitting my stick while chopping down the ice with my skates was too much for me. I had to play! So Jim and I formed a league and here we are.

The XHL was and still is to a degree a passion of mine. I've loved playing and have enjoyed, for the most part, being in charge of the league. I've learned a lot through the experience. From working with others, to reading a weather map, to setting long term goals, the XHL has helped me grow as a person.

It hasn't always been easy. There have been ugly days. I remember a particular night after an ugly off the court incident involving some family members who were watching a game I had to make a difficult decision in the morning. After calling several witnesses and captains from various teams, I had to suspend a couple of players to send a message that their behavior was not approrpriate, one being from my own team. I remember getting reemed out by one of the guys involved who I thought was my friend. You see, he decided to make it personal when it was never really that at all. The other player never played a game for my team. But in the end, I had to do what was best for the league. As much as people like to razz me for it, I always tried to be impartial and fair, even if it meant punishing my own team. I always considered myself to be the XHL President first and the Colonials Captain second.

While there were drawbacks and difficult decisions to make along the way, the good far outweighed the bad. I've made so many friendships over the years and met so many fun and interesting people. I think what I enjoyed the most about the league was the camradarie and the off the court "little" things. From watching Bob Williams hit golf balls off a metal pole at a bonfire, to listening to Rob Stanley and Mike Doyle sing karaoke, to the numerous tournaments together, hockey has been the common bond that has brought people of differing personalities and differing backgrounds together. How many of us would know each other today if not for the XHL?

It's bittersweet to look back at those days, knowing that we don't get them back. Nonetheless, we can cherish the memories we've made together and the people that we've them with.

The oldest picture I could find from the league was in 2002. The picture is of the Crusaderz. You might remember them as "the mullet brothers" team (you know...the Williams). Look at that person in net. It's a bird, it's not a plane, it's Bob Williams.

If you looked quickly at that picture, you may have missed a few things. Those nets were Franklin nets and were certainly a lot cheaper than the ones we currently use. The court actually had some red paint on it in those days and looked quite a bit nicer. And the boards were ply wood at that time, which was a huge upgrade over the luan board from season one.

I remember how proud Jim and I were of those first boards from the inaugural season. We purchased them with sponsorship money and spent a lot of time that winter painting them before wiring them to the fence. We thought we had made an advanced board system considering the league's financial shape. But in the very first game they were used, Bob's brother Shawn (the other mullet) skated right through a section of the boards, leaving two feet mark behind, almost like he was leaving a plastered cut out of his skates. Check out the culprit here:

I wish we had more pictures from back in the day, but the memories of the "good old days" come back so quickly when browsing our photo album. Look at how much younger we looked back in the day:

While we never get the past back, we can look forward to the future. Tim Herman is set to take over as the league's dictator, I mean president. New memories along with new laughable pictures will be made and I look forward to the next 11 years together in the XHL!

I leave you with a few more pictures from the past: