Summary: Ice Time is a look at a High School hockey season in the town of Methuen, Massachusetts. It is a tale full triumph, pain and human emotion. Kind of like a hockey game.

This ain’t a book report, so don’t expect plot summaries and all of that mumbo jumbo. This book is about one man’s relationship with his youth, his community and the sport of ice hockey.

If you play the game or watch the game, you will get it immediately. If you played any other sport at a High School level, you will also understand it.

If you never even looked at a hockey stick, Jay Atkinson has written this so well that you will still get it. This book is that good.

Unlike most hockey books that spend time talking about that night in Philly when we… Well you know the type. This book is about hockey in its purest form: youth and High School. Jay brings you into the lives of Chris Cagliuso, Albert Soucy and his own son, Liam. The former High School hockey players, the latter a 5 year old beginning to develop a love for the game.

As someone who has spent my life around sports, it was refreshing to read a book that touches on the importance of High School athletics to small communities. With so much emphasis on scholarships, winning and losing, it was a pleasure to read about High School coaches using the privilege of playing a Varsity sport to stress the importance of being a role model. More impressive was the seriousness with which these young men take it.

This is no Friday Night Lights. Nor is it a sappy, romantic view where everything is roses. This is a book about young men and women doing something they love being taught by older men who are going beyond the X’s and O’s to try to inspire passion for hockey and life.

When you are sitting there at the rink, bring this book, sit in the snack bar and read it. It is worth your time, money and may just help you understand why you are there at 6 AM surrounded by the smell of stale sweat mixed with pizza, Gatorade and chewing gum.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.