My REAL "Lost Boys of Hockey" Article

The Lost Boys of Hockey

“Oh momma don’t you cry, St. Paul's hockey is do or die.”

“I play fall and spring hockey, there is no off season” stated Flurin Domenig ’13. “I do not play any other sport this year. I used to play varsity lacrosse, also tried JV Baseball. I just go to the gym and prepare for the upcoming hockey season. It is hockey season 365 days a year for us,” said Derick Roy ’11. Contrary to popular belief that “hockey bros” hang out with the ladies 24/7, there’s more to the “bros” than flirting. “I do not play any other sports. I left varsity soccer and lacrosse to dedicate all my time to hockey, which I did before coming to SPS” says Paul Arthur Plaisir ’11. This is what happens to hockey players when they come to St. Paul’s. Ryan Bliss ’14, for example, a hockey recruit, plays baseball in the spring, and Luke Babcock ’14 plays lacrosse. So did captain Derick Roy ’11, until he stopped so that he could pursue hockey 365 days a year.

Quite obviously hockey players take their sport seriously. “I miss hockey when I don't play hockey for 3 days. A couple of years ago I didn't play for 4 days and it was a dark time in my life” Flurin Domenig ’13. However this “all hockey all the time” mindset is not limited to just the varsity boys. Three new members of the girls JV team feel the same- Hannah Hirschfeld ’14, Tommie Deering ’14, and Carter Ballentine ’13. According to Hannah, “Hockey made my winter because of so many things, especially when we got to do Supermans at practice, even when Lucy Chase (’13) cheated.” Tommie commented that, “Regardless of whether I got to dress for the games sitting on the bench with the green line made me never want to play in games anyways.” Carter agrees on this, when she says, “Even though I didn’t get to play in a single game hockey was the highlight of my winter.”

According to students, the hockey players can be seen congregating after chapel, sitting at the Upper together, playing roller hockey together, and most notably surrounding Third Form girls. Why is this? “We're a group of guys who all come together for something that is much bigger then all of us combined and when you take a group of guys who all have such a passion for something the bonds that you form with those boys are stronger then ones that I have yet to find,” answers Sam Hudziak ’13.

To put it in the words of Greg Zaffino ’13, “Hockey is just the best sport.” Hockey at St. Paul’s sets the mood, whenever the “bros” travel in a pack its noticeable whether or not they had a successful game—either solemnly quiet, or loud and rowdy. But really, what it takes to be a “hockey bro” is true dedication for hockey—live for it, die for it. Even at the expense of some Third Form girls. 

A Background

I just recently (as in twenty minutes ago) got into a quarrel with a close friend of mine over the controversy in the Middle East. The argument stemmed from the publication of my high school newspaper (on which I am a staff writer) an article entitled, "No Peace in the Middle East." The article itself was factual and consistently true, however because of a couple of things the author may have written with his voice rather than that of a nonbiased journalist I lost my bearings. I am an Israeli-American student at an elite boarding school in New England. I'm from California but  I read and speak Hebrew fluently and both of my parents grew up in Israel. So I've always felt the need to be the person defending the amazing Middle East to which I pledge ancestry, even if it means defending unto the last straw the same Islamic Extremists that the United States of America fights to eradicate.To be clear- I love the Middle East- unconditionally, I believe that it is one of the most culture rich, amazing regions of the world, from the delicious food to the sandy deserts to the traditional and honorable citizens.In my life I look forward to traveling to both Arab and Semitic nations alike, and hope that in the coming time the beauty of the Middle East will never falter.
But back to my quarrel. In brief the article talked about how the "countries of the Middle East can be divided into 3 main categories: countries that are clearly improving, countries that are in political transition, and countries that are in bad situations either not improving or getting even worse." What did the author mean by 'improving' versus 'getting worse?' In context, improving indicated the countries such as Morocco and Tunisia which have both made drastic steps toward Westernization through both freedom of press and speech, technological advancement, and democracy. 'Getting worse,' then, implies nations that do not agree with Western culture and democracy, therefore do not live by it, and are seen as in need of help.
Why did Iran revolutionize in 1979 to become super Islamic? Because that's what the people wanted. When the citizens of a country as great as Iran took to the streets and threw out the Shah they had full knowledge of their intentions for their country. They wanted Islam. They wanted it in full, they wanted dictatorship, the wanted cencorship of press, and they wanted burqas.
Why are American troops still in Afghanistan? Why do the Afghan people fight back? Because they don't want to destroy the culture they have preserved for tens of centuries. They want to stick to tradition.  When American soldiers stomp onto their soil what does that look like? It looks like a non-cultured, non-thoughtful American with a machine gun slung on their back with half a mind to shoot at the first living thing they see. The threat that we pose as Americans is much different than what the public believes.
We hear in the news about all the soldiers who died in the past week in battle. Well why did they die and who killed them? And for what? Something tells me that these men and women didn't just get shot by a machine gun for no reason- no human in their right mind kills a man out of the blue. No, these servicemen were shot because they pose the threat of the obstruction of justice by forcing upon unwilling people democracy, a genocide of culture, and that maybe, just maybe, if enough of dem' soldiers die Obama will take them away.
How can a great and powerful nation like these 50 United States do to an entire people what we ourselves fear the most?
What if a plethora of Mujaheeden and Taliban soldiers marched over American soil and handed out burqas to every woman they saw? What if they imprisoned Obama and installed an extremist dictator they deem worthy to rule? What right does a human have to do that to another?
Absolutely none, is the answer. No human, American or Arab, Asian or Hispanic, African or Jew, has the right to impose a way of living undesired by the party they have attacked. Nobody has the right to force any way of living other than what is wanted. So what if Iranians want a more Islamic state?
They don't live in the U.S.A., or anyplace even near it. What threat do they pose to us? Well if we tear up their soil and walk around with machine guns, they have the right to be angered. We need to let them be. We need to accept that we cannot Westernize the entire world. We need to live and let live, not live and let die.
America needs to stop the war on Islam. Islam is great. Although not everything about it is great, neither is everything about any other religion. Every religion has its extremists. For Jew's, thats Chabad, for Christianity, its Evangelists. The only difference between any of these extremists and Muslim ones is that  Islam as a whole is being attacked by America-America is anti-Islam. So when people start to attack one another, those being attacked will fight back. It's human instinct. We just need to accept the fact that Muslims will be Muslims, and Americans will be Americans. There is nothing wrong with either lifestyle chosen, they are just different.
So when it is implied in a high school newspaper that countries in the Middle East leaning towards a more Islamic state are "getting worse," and ones that want to be just like America are the ones "improving," it goes to show how even the most informed person is still biased against the Islamic culture that so many people value.