ROCKPORT, Maine — Imagine a lifetime sport that combines intensive cardio, upper- and lower-body strength and flexibility while cultivating balance, grace and coordination. It demands focus and concentration along with split-second reflexes, accuracy, intuition and communication. It attracts both men and women of all skill levels and provides an opportunity to mix it up with older and younger players. Injuries are rare. Camaraderie is high.
Now imagine that sport is ice hockey.
Ice hockey, a longtime winter tradition among Maine youth and young adults, may seem an unlikely sport for older players, in part because of a reputation for on-ice violence and injury. But, with some accommodations, it is attracting a small but enthusiastic following among Maine seniors, with informal opportunities to play at ice arenas across the state.
From Biddeford to Madawaska and from the midcoast west to Bethel, there are indoor and outdoor ice arenas throughout Maine, including private recreation centers, arenas on college and university campuses and some municipal rinks. Most offer public skating hours as well as youth and adult hockey league play. Some arenas and rinks set aside time for the most seasoned players, those who may no longer want to risk the rough-and-tumble of league play but aren’t ready to give up the challenge, physicality and conviviality of a game they’ve loved since they were children.
The Dusty Pucks
On a recent Tuesday morning, the parking lot was nearly full at the nonprofit Midcoast Recreation Center in Rockport. With school in session and many young adults working during the day, the center schedules daytime programming to attract an older, mostly retirement-age clientele.
Inside, four tennis courts were occupied by energetic, gray-haired teams of mixed doubles. More older adults filtered into an upstairs workout room for circuit training, bantering as they laced up spotless athletic shoes. Down the hall, another space was filled with the quiet energy of a tai chi session. And in the comfortable canteen area, about a dozen seniors sat at small tables in groups of four, learning to play contract bridge.
All these seniors were engaged in healthy activities appropriate to their age and ability. But behind a set of steel double doors, a group of six men were taking things to a different level.
In the cold air of the center’s regulation ice arena, members of the Dusty Pucks senior men’s hockey group warmed up in preparation for their weekly pickup game. Stepping onto the ice in their heavily padded gear, wearing protective helmets and face cages, they skated slow circuits, stretching, reaching and bending as they circled. They picked up speed, swooping and swerving across the ice, cutting sharply to stop or reverse direction. With their sticks, they manipulated the small rubber practice pucks easily, passing them back and forth on the ice, flipping them against the side boards of the arena and shooting them deftly into the freestanding goals at either end of the playing area, which had been shortened by half to accommodate the older group.
As the warmup intensified, the arena filled with sound: the scrape of skate blades across the ice, the slam of the pucks on the boards, the clatter of hockey sticks against each other and against the ice. Occasional shouts floated up to the viewing area — “Pass it, pass it!” “Shoot!” “Nice one!”
After a few minutes, the men separated into two teams — yellow jerseys against white jerseys — and began a spirited hour of play, with a short rest break in the middle. There was a lot of hustle and scramble, some great shots and some missed ones, a lot of chasing the puck up and down the ice. It was clearly a solid workout, enhanced by the players’ enjoyment of the game and each other’s company.
There was no checking, ice hockey’s trademark, hard-contact collision strategy aimed at gaining control of the puck from an opponent. It’s completely legal in league play, but in the older group’s rules, checking is disallowed, to reduce the likelihood of injury.
Keeping it safe
“There’s no checking, and there’s more passing; we all have to get up and go to work in the morning,” said 72-year-old Cabot Lyman of Cushing, who plays with the Dusty Pucks as well as in the center’s more competitive, multi-age adult league.
And that’s true — though some of the senior players are retired, many are still working at least part time.
Lyman, owner of Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding in Thomaston, said that, like many in the group, he’s been playing hockey since he was a child.
“We had a pond at my house. We skated all winter. We carried our skates to school and skated every day after school. Pond hockey was unbelievably fun,” he said.
He played through high school and college and has played on and off through his adult life.
“The reason us older guys still play and are so avid is because it’s one of the few sports you can still play in a team with younger players,” he said. “It’s quite safe. Hockey is very forgiving on your joints, and if you fall, you just slide on the ice.”
Woodcarver Mike McCune, 65, of Camden also started playing hockey as a child.
“I played 25 years, then I took 20 years off when I moved down south,” he said.
He recently returned to Maine, he said, and decided about three weeks ago to try hockey again.
“It’s hard to pick it up again after so long,” McCune said, “but it comes back. It’s like riding a bicycle.”
There are some challenges for older players, he acknowledged.
“You kind of wish you were 20 again, but it doesn’t really matter,” he said. “We’re all in the same boat.”
The group’s oldest member is architect Bill Sepe of Rockport, who gave his age as “close to 80.”
“It keeps rigor mortis from setting in,” he said, of his regular pickup games at the recreation center. Playing in the less competitive environment of the Dusty Pucks is a better option at his age than playing in the regular adult leagues, where players — including adult women — are generally younger and more aggressive, he said.
In addition to playing ice hockey, Sepe enjoys open ice-skating sessions at the rec center. In the summer, when the ice is gone, he comes for in-line skating.
“Physical exercise is good for your brain as well as your body, and your spirit,” he said. “I always said I was going to skate until I was 80, but now I guess I’m going to keep at it a while longer.”
