Life of the Lintee Bean

One of my coworkers said he didn’t know women played hockey until the last Olympics. I’m guessing there’s more men that play hockey than women, but women definitely play hockey.

Lintee Bean (me) in her hockey gear

Nine of the students in my “Hockey 101” class are women. Apparently that’s more than last session, as the women repeating the class were excited we got our own locker room. If there’s only a few women, we’re given only a restroom or the referees’ room.

These aren’t nice locker rooms. They remind me of our high school locker rooms, musty and smelly.  There’s an area for changing, with lockers, and a separate area for toilets and showers. However, the toilet/shower area is between two locker rooms, and shared. I can’t see any woman using the shower/toilet area knowing a man from the adjoining locker room could walk in at any moment.

Though I’m not athletic myself, I expected my fellow female classmates to be the athletic “tomboy” types. This isn’t really the case. Not a single woman in my class has short hair. Most have pink jerseys and pink tape on their sticks.  One woman has pink hockey gloves, and another is actively searching for pink hockey pants.

Some women go out for drinks or on dates every week after class. They change from their hockey gear into nice clothes, even dresses. I don’t know how they do it. I just change into another t-shirt and pants that isn’t wet and smelly. I’ve overheard one woman asking if her makeup looked okay after class.  I don’t wear any makeup to class except what’s tattooed on.  I would  sweat it off anyway, why bother? As I’ve said, I sweat a LOT.  My chin guard is a disgusting pool of sweat.  One class I had a giant drop of sweat on my nose for probably ten minutes. I would have loved to wipe it off, but I’m wearing a helmet with a face cage. Even if I had time to take my hockey gloves off, the best I could do is stick a finger through the cage to poke at the sweat.

Another coworker expressed concern that I was leaving hockey class after dark, and walking to my car parked down the street.  I’m not worried. I figure it’d take an especially brave (or stupid) criminal to mess with a woman carrying hockey sticks.  Not to mention I’m parked between the Fraternal Order of Police building and the Patrolmens’ Credit Union. Needless to say, I’m not parked illegally!

I’m excited to be one of those women that play hockey, but I have no plans for any pink hockey gear. In that respect, I guess I’ll just be one of the guys.

Submitted for publication in the Greeley Citizen