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West Lakers chasing the puck on the rink
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DRAWN together by a shared passion for swirling around a puck around the ice, more than 40 foreigners living in Hangzhou and local residents have put their sticks together for the Hangzhou West Lakers Hockey Club.
In Europe and North America, ice hockey is a popular winter sport, but in Hangzhou, there are only two amateur teams, and most players are from Western countries. The Hangzhou West Lakers Hockey Club is one of them.
It was two years ago that Canadians Frank Ienzi and William Lefebvre decided to form a hockey club in Hangzhou, which quickly grew from two members to more than 40. The team plays Monday evening and Thursday evening at a rink in Chengxi Intime City.
“One day I was wandering in the mall and I saw a nice rink, and the idea of playing hockey here suddenly came into my head,” said Ienzi. “I played hockey when I was small, and playing makes feel like I’m backed at home.”.
He called his friend Lefebvre, and the duo started to spread the word.
Team members hail from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Finland, New Zealand, and Denmark, and hold all sorts of jobs, such as teachers, sports coaches, engineers, designers, IT experts, entrepreneurs, and even a pilot.
“Hangzhou is a city of more and more migrants, and it is happy to see that people from different places can maintain their hobby while they are away from home,” said Liu Wei, who used to manage the rink when he was approached by the foreigners, and soon decide to join the club himself.
Helmets, shoulder pads, jockstraps, skates and other hockey equipment are either brought from home or brought online. As there’s no budget for a coach, it’s the most experienced players who give instructions to the newbies.
Chen Jiawei, a Chinese team member who never played hockey before joining the team said that he was always a fan of ice skating fan, but struggled to learn the basics.
“I fell on the ground a lot of times at the beginning,” said Chen. “It’s due to the team that I got through this most difficult phase.”
There are also experienced players, like the Canadians who started when they were little, as well as Wang Xin, a hockey referee and coach from China.
“It is awesome to play with people who have the same hobby,” Wang said. “And it is my duty to promote hockey so that people can understand it more.”
There’s also a female goalkeeper, Zhao Ruixi, who, at a height of 160 centimeters, is a little shorter than most members. “It’s just a sport, everyone can give it a try,” she said.
Step by step, the team is getting more professional. Recently, it just had its own logo designed, featuring parts of the West Lake.
“We want to have something that symbolizes Hangzhou, and to tell that we are a serious team,” said Ray.
In the future, the West Lakers plan to have a league with different teams, and travel to other cities in China and Asia for tournaments.
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