UBC January 2024 - Game Day

It is amazing how quickly you tend to forget about things. For the third time in a row Colin's first hockey game of the year took place in Bellinzona, Ticino, which is the capital of Ticino in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. 

Two years ago we were in the mids of the pandemic and people attached letters addressed to the government to the Christmas tree in front of the municipal building, asking them to reconsider the mask mandate for children as young as seven years old. 

Thankfully this weekend, nobody thought about Covid, vaccinations or masks. Even though I've heard of people being sick over the holidays, not one of our players had to be excused, and our team showed up in full. 

Not so fast though. Before appearing at the meeting point, a lot of preparation work is due for the players and their parents.

Like packing up the gear and preparing snacks! This time all went well. 

Two of the Dads volunteered to drive the team vans. 

Since the Women's U18 World Championship is taking place at our home arena most of the drop off zone was occupied by the international team's vans, so we just let Colin hop out and went on our way.

The drive went really well. The Goothard route is usually super crowded, and you can easily lose an hour or two waiting in front of the tunnel. I loved the winter wonderland in the mountainous region.

So for once we had a good chunk of time to kill before the game, so we went to the town. It was very quiet. Shops are typically closed on Sundays, but we were surprised to find that the restaurants weren't open either. Ever since the lockdown(s) it has been difficult to find people who are willing to work in the gastronomy field. It's hard work, unpopular working hours and low pay.

So when we arrived at this temporary outdoor rink / Christmas village, the chances of getting a cup of coffee have increased. 

It was an absolutely charming setup, and a scenic one, too, look at that medieval backdrop! 

The last encounter between the two teams didn't end well, and our boys lost. They were not going to let that happen again!

During the warm up I noticed that the opponent had a handful of players who weren't wearing red helmets. This indicated that they belonged to a different club. Had they brought in reinforcements to beat us again? 

In retrospect - and after studying the team line-up - the opposite was probably the case. I assumed that some of their regular players, including their top scorer, were absent due to illness or accidents or had not yet returned from vacation. 

Bad luck for them, good for us! Our team played well. Colin came very close to scoring a goal. Unfortunately he only hit the crossbar. It's at 7:55 of the video.

They still won 1:4 :-) 

interestingly the adult team that played in the Italian part as well, ended up with the exact same result. 

We only got home around 11pm, and Colin had his first day back at school this morning, but he managed.

What have you been up this weekend?