The Bridgton Academy Alumni Game

Though this is slightly off the topic of men's league, I feel like I have to write about it as it does at the very least relate to me, and to hockey...

Last weekend I took a drive that I haven't taken in fourteen years, to a place that I thought that I would probably never go to again.  Bridgton Academy, in North Bridgton, Maine.  

The motto of BA is "The year that makes the difference."  And I'll tell you something, for me, it did.  Both academically and athletically.  I know, without question that if it wasn't for my post graduate year there that I would have never been able to play college hockey, let alone get into college...  However, that is not the point of this post, what I want to write about is the Bridgton Academy Alumni game that I played in last Saturday.

The game was held at the Academy, though the closest thing that we had to a rink when I was there was a slab of cracked concrete surrounded by rapidly deteriorating boards and no glass.  About three years after my graduation, the school finally broke down and built a rink on campus, next to the football field and gymnasium.  The rink itself isn't anything special, though it is considerably better than a lot of the private school, and public rinks that I have played in. (Though it was a little dark for my tastes)  Plus, anything is better than having to dive, in a van, with your gear strapped into a plywood box on top of the roof of said van, I mean, fuck, we're talking about Maine, in February (and every other ice cold month of the winter) and the half hour drive to Hebron Academy just north of us made getting dressed for practice an uncomfortable experience.  Driving to somewhere like Vermont Academy was just plain cruel and unusual punishment.  Now the school is equipped with both a rink AND a coach bus...  Those lucky bastards.

Now Bridgton Academy is a different kind of private school...  First, it is the only all post graduate private school in the country.  Second, it is an all boys school in a very, very small town where it was absolutely forbidden of any of the academy students to "fraternize" with any of the local girls...  (Expulsion was the quick and immediate response for that.)  The school has been molding young minds for over two hundred years, so it is safe to say that they are doing something right.

Anyway, the on to the game itself.  Now, because of of the fact that it is school that exists entirely of post graduate students, unless a student from my graduating class '(96) showed up to play, the only people that I would know would be coaches and teachers.  Unfortunately, that was the case.  I was the only player from the Class of 1996 to make it to the game, but that did not in anyway take away from my enjoyment of the game itself.  It was basically like other charity/alumni games that I have played in, basically a glorified pick-up game with a ref and an announcer.  But god, it was fun.  There was a player there from the class of '58, there were a few more from the 70's, a couple from the 80's, but most of us came from a class in the 90's (reliving our glory years I guess).  And yeah, there were even a few whippersnappers that came from a class in this very new millennium.

There were some very solid players, and the game was relatively fast paced, and there were plenty of goals scored (we played twenty minute periods), indicated by the final score of 13-6 (and yes, we won).  I can honestly say that I felt like I was smiling the entire time I was playing.  It might have been the most fun that I have had while playing a "game," though calling it a game might be a bit of an overstatement...  But shit it was fun.  And it seemed like everyone else felt the same way, there were a lot of smiles out there on the ice, a lot of laughing, a lot of joking around.

After the game the Academy put out a nice spread in the student lounge for us, there was a tour of the new, and rather impressive Humanities building followed by a dinner back in the student lounge.  After dinner there was what amounted to a state of the school/hockey program address which took me back to all of those weekly chapel sessions listening to Coach Daily...  It was great to be back there, to see that even though there have been some huge changes (a hockey rink, the Humanities building), that for the most part, Bridgton Academy is exactly how I remember it.  The dinning hall, the dorms, the chapel...  Hell, it even started snowing while I was there...

I'm already looking forward to next years game...