It’s a good morning for hockey: These dedicated rec hockey players prove it’s never too early to hit the ice
Jason Kuharic leaves the rink after an early Friday morning game at the Iceoplex. Kuharic, a 2003 graduate of Jefferson-Morgan High School, purchases the ice time at the beginning of the year and players pay Kuharic $10 a week.
From left, Scott Lantz, Ryan McCullough and Jason Kuharic get ready in the locker room before the start of a Friday morning hockey game at the Iceoplex in Southpointe. McCullough drives 40 miles every Friday to play.
John Sloan looks down the ice while Andrew Alper defends during a Friday morning game March 25. A group of about 20 players meet every Friday morning to play for 70 minutes.
Bill Reilly takes the puck down the ice during a pickup hockey game at the Iceoplex. Some players drive as far as Fox Chapel and Wheeling, W.Va., to get ice time.
Mike Joyce speeds down the rink during an early morning hockey game. On Friday mornings, a group of rec league players arrive at the Iceoplex around 5:30 a.m.
CANONSBURG – Not a sound could be heard on Southpointe Boulevard and the few cars scooting along the dark, unusually desolate road Good Friday morning were seemingly headed to one destination: the Iceoplex at Southpointe.
It was only 5:25 a.m., but small groups of men gathered in the parking lot with hockey bags at their side and sticks in their hands. Some drove from as far away as Wheeling, W.Va., and most were trying to block from their minds the idea of a post-hockey commute to work, but the dozen people waiting for the glass doors to unlock were all here for the same reason.
Jaws might drop and the word crazy is usually floated when these guys tell stories of their weekly recreational hockey game, but they get together every Friday – holiday or not, cold or warm, snowy or dry – to play competitive, noncontact pickup hockey while most people in the surrounding neighborhoods are fast asleep or rolling out of bed toward a caffeine fix.
“The reaction is mostly shock, like ‘Why would you get up that early to do that?'” Jason Kuharic, a 2003 Jefferson-Morgan graduate, said with a laugh. “To those of us who do play, it’s no different than people who work out at the gym in the morning. It’s our activity we like to do in the morning. It just happens to be hockey and we all love it.”
The empty hallway adjacent to the rink echoed with sporadic sounds of hockey bags and sticks falling to floor, but a few voices could be heard escaping the locker room doors.
Inside, Kuharic and four others talk about their recent men’s league hockey game. It is those organized recreational leagues that sparked the Friday morning games, and what began as a way to get extra ice time for one team five years ago grew into a regular 70-minute skate that can draw as many as 20 players, including two goalies, for the 5-on-5 game.
Kuharic, who took over organizing the game, collects money from each player before they take the ice at 5:50 a.m., and posts the teams every week on the group’s Facebook page. Word spread quickly over the last five years and now, it’s an eclectic group of guys from all walks of life who descend upon Southpointe to enjoy a workout at dawn and a sport that cannot be found at the local gym or park.
The locker room is filled with friendly trash talk and a little recounting of last week’s game – who fell, which goalie gave up the most goals and where some guys bought their equipment. The topic of discussion never strays away from the sport that brings them together.
“This is great. It’s a no-brainer,” said Richie Walter, a 33-year-old bartender who lives in downtown Pittsburgh. “Nothing feels better than waking up in the morning, coming out here at 5:50 to a fresh sheet of ice.
“Some of us play together in other leagues, some of us hang out together. I get a lot of guys coming down to the bar and stuff like that on the weekends. It’s just a good time. It’s a good workout and makes us feel young.”
The players slowly file onto the ice to warm up, shoot a bit and split into teams. The stands and lobby are empty – the only sounds that could be heard are the banging of pucks off the boards.
There are players of various skill levels – some have extensive experience playing competitively, others started playing hockey in recent years. The oldest player is in his early 50s, the youngest is 19, but age doesn’t mean much in this game.
There is a college professor, an assistant general manager for Giant Eagle, a salesman in the oil and gas industry and college students.
Ryan McCullough, a 35-year-old communications professor at West Liberty University, rolls out of bed at 4:15 a.m. every Friday to make the 40-mile drive from Wheeling. Most Fridays, he rushes back to teach a course.
“Playing pickup hockey isn’t like playing pickup basketball,” McCullough said. “There are only so many options. This is the closest rink to me, so if I want to play, this is the easiest place for me to go. It’s not like basketball where there’s a court down the street and I can get a pickup game anywhere.”
The game starts with a quick goal – a redirection past Ryan Farrell, a 36-year-old Cecil resident who is one of the goalies. There’s no celebration, no reaction and no ensuing faceoff. The puck is quickly taken out of the net and play resumes.
It’s noncontact, but collisions, bumps and trips are inevitable. When someone takes a big fall, guys quickly make sure the fallen player is OK and continue to skate like nothing happened. Frustration is inevitable with competition, even at this level.
All of the guys skate well – to a certain degree – but skill level begins to show as they grow tired without a break or any type of intermission, leading to very little defense and plenty of goals. Everyone is wearing a different colored jersey, some have old equipment and others new, but neither matters on Friday morning.
It’s all about bragging rights until the next Friday, or until the group plays with or against each other during recreation league games throughout the week. But that doesn’t mean there’s no camaraderie.
“They score on you or you make a good save, they’ll usually say, ‘Hey, good save,’ or ‘Nice try,'” Farrell said. “They make sure you don’t get down as a goalie because they score a lot. They definitely did today.
“There are a couple guys who, if they come on a breakaway, I’ll yell at them to tell them to bring it or something like that. There’s not too much trash-talking from me, but the other guys do some jawing, for sure.”
As the clock nears 7 a.m., players start to slowly skate off the ice as play continues. Kuharic has to quickly get ready for his commute to Fox Chapel while others are simply tired. Like many of his teammates or opponents, Kuharic did not play at an early age.
Though he always wanted to play hockey, it took him until after he graduated from California University to give it a try. Now, he can’t get enough of the sport.
When he heard of playing before 6 a.m. on Friday mornings, even he hesitated. Years later, when his work commute shifted from downtown Pittsburgh to Fox Chapel, one of his first thoughts was hockey.
“At first, I thought it was crazy,” Kuharic said. “I was super tired at work for a while, but now it’s just part of our weekly routine. That was actually one of my concerns when I made the switch from downtown to Fox Chapel. That’s 15 more minutes added on to my commute, ‘How is this going to impact hockey?'”
It’s almost 7:30 a.m. and seven guys remain on the ice, shifting the game to a half-ice game of three-on-three with no breaks, no stoppages and Farrell as target practice in net.
On some Fridays, the skeleton staff at the Iceoplex quickly ushers them off the ice minutes after 7 a.m., but on Good Friday – aside from a handful of men in the gym upstairs – they have the building to themselves.
McCullough is especially grateful on this quiet morning. For once, he doesn’t have to rush back to Wheeling for class. But like his fellow players, he’ll do whatever it takes to play the sport he loves.
“I’m just addicted to hockey,” McCullough said.