Gary Wright (7)Besprekingen

Look at the world of small college NCAA athletics--where competition is for the love of the sport with minimal hope of playing at the next level. 30 years of coaching seems to fly by as you turn the pages. Fans of college hockey and college athletics will enjoy this book.

I received this book through LibraryThing'ss early reviewer program.

The 70's were a golden age for professional hockey as the game expanded with new teams. College programs followed suit so the time frame covered by this book is of particular interest for those interested in the history of the sport. This was a time frame in which college programs moved from clubs and intramural to higher quality NCAA competition so it was interesting to hear about the experiences of one person growing up in that time.

The story itself does require appreciate for hockey as well as cultural understanding. There are many stereotypes about it as a sport and it has gone through many changes but has a rich history. The narrative shows a great deal of respect and historical connection but a certain level of detachment. There were high hopes to see growth and motivation behind coaching approaches and ties to the evolution of the game.

A solid book with a lot to offer for hockey fans, at least those that have interest in were it came from as opposed to what it has become.

I abandoned the book halfway through. The book reads like a series of diary entries, rather than a narrative or story. One coaching gig after another. A bunch of games. Lots of name-dropping (players, coaches). Few lessons learned. Little passion. I was looking forward to reading this book because I am a college and professional hockey fan. I'm sorry I couldn't finish it.

I thought that this book was really fun to read! I've only ever watched college hockey and have read about hockey in fiction books so it was interesting to read about the sport from a different perspective. I thought that the book was really great and I found it engaging throughout. I definitely hope that people check it out and get a better view into the life of a hockey player and into coaching.

So you'd think someone with grandparents in Chicago and Milwaukee would have had exposure to hockey growing up, but aside from seeing youth hockey practices at an ice rink near Chicago, I really didn't know much about hockey until I was in graduate school in Pittsburgh, PA and would watch the Penguins play on TV.

Despite that, I thought this book would be an interesting look into hockey when I saw it listed on LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program. And it is. Just maybe not in the way I expected.

I knew nothing about Gary Wright prior to reading the book. Though I appreciated him discussing how he got into hockey while young, I felt the book got more interesting after he started his coaching career. Even with that, I knew very few of the names he mentioned in the book--though serious hockey fans might.

I am glad I read it. I received an ARC so there was no index--I think an index might be helpful for readers looking for certain names or schools.½

I've read a lot in my life but it's never been the only major pursuit. Helping to raise my family, music and hockey have always been there too. Of all of them hockey came first of all of them. Somewhere around the time I was 15 I began playing street hockey in my small city in upstate NY and around the time I turned 19 was when I first started to skate in earnest and that went on maybe until I was somewhere around 55.

That would have been roughly between 1972 and 1976 and somewhere around the mid 70's would be when Elmira College started its hockey program which is what ushered in kids hockey programs to our area. Until then there were some my age who would play on ponds and such but I'm now aware of or don't remember anything else. But anyway it wasn't very organized until the College thing got going and EC going from a women's college to Coed and putting in a rink and starting a hockey program is what really kickstarted hockey in our area.

Which brings me finally to Gary Wright's Striding Rough Ice. His story begins as a youth in Vermont--one in which he was brought up playing hockey at a very young age--playing for organized teams on outdoor rinks sometimes coached by his father. As a young man he was good enough to play some college hockey at Vermont U. and afterwards he turned to coaching--first high school hockey and then as an assistant coach and then finally as head coach of a Division two College hockey team American International College in Springfield Mass. It was a job he loved and which he held until he finally retired a few years ago...of the longest tenures of coaching the same team.

Roughly that is what Wright's story is about. I like the book very much but you really need to be a hockey fan and maybe an older one to fully appreciate it if only because the more primitive conditions of where the game in the United States was then juxtaposed to now are so vastly different. But anyway I think there are some out there who have had somewhat similar experiences.....and a lot of them played for Coach Wright and others like him.