I’m in a hockey league called the EMFHL. Except for a two season break, I’ve been playing in it since university, well over a decade now. How Canadian is that?
It’s allowed me to stay in touch with friends, and build new friendships while going through my first decade of work — and while living overseas in London, Brussels, and Atlanta. I could play everyday even when I was in exchange programs to universities in Singapore and Mexico.
Well that sounds like a pretty weird Hockey League – I mean how do we play when we’re not in the same town, let alone the same country? Well it’s actually an Internet Hockey League. What happens is the commissioner (one of the 16 people in the league), runs the games every night and then either emails the results or posts them to the – EMFHL Website – www.emfhl.com. The people in the league, General Managers and Coaches, then review the results and either make changes to their lines, make trades, or send out mails to each other bragging about wins or whining about losses. These mails are called Press Releases and written in the style of an official Press Release in the sporting pages.
The question asked by all our girlfriends and wives is — why? Well part of it is the competitive fire that we all have. It’s a safe way to vent it. The other reason is we like hockey and games in general. You take a team and manage it with the horizons of years, not just a night. Lastly though is I think the real glue behind it all – friendships.
See while I’ve been travelling I’ve happened to stay in touch with some childhood friends because of this. As you hit your 20s and 30s a lot of people find those friendships fade. Not intentionally but from lack of time and interaction. Add different time zones and continents into the mix and the odds of staying in touch diminish. I guess in many ways this was a precursor to Groups on Facebook and other now mass-market Social Networking sites.
Well due to this, I’ve stayed in touch with one of my best friends, Quinn Carter. And he’s kept me hooked into the crowd we grew up with. I think the friendship that grew from this was one of the large reasons I became MC at Darren and Elizabeth Hall’s wedding. I’m good friends with dudes that I’ve not met! The list goes on.
In fact, last night I met up with two GMs from this league who I knew but who hadn’t seen each other in ages. But since we talk all the time it was just fun to go watch a baseball game together. And annoy everyone around us discussing hockey 