(Featured image: Arena, host to 2011 Asian Winter Games. Story and photos provided by Walter Epp)

When we last heard from Professor Walter Epp, he was traveling  in and around the Himalayas. See previous story Here.

He just checked in again and provides an intriguing update to his Hockey Without Borders adventure.

Chapter 2.  Ramblings of the Skating Professor: October, 2018.

Vlad and I were sitting in a traditional Kazak restaurant trying our best to communicate which was challenging with no internet and google translate.

A youngish looking man, sitting with his wife and 3 kids at the next table, offered to facilitate and in the course of the evening, asked if I might be available, perhaps for dinner the next day, to help him and his business colleagues practice English. He was a ‘business man’ and owned several Language schools and Copy Centres. Sammy and I exchanged WhatsApp data and the adventure began. I should say it continued as this was several days into my stay in Almaty and an awful lot had already happened. 

I met my Slovak teammates and we had a training session in the fanciest (by far) arena I ever played in. The arena that hosted the 2011 Asian winter games. Our training session was without our two young guns who were detained by security in the Riga Airport for violating the no smoking rule which might not have been so bad had they not shown signs of excessive alcohol consumption which, according to security regulations, made them ineligible to board the flight to Almaty.

So, at considerable personal expense they re-booked their flights and sobered up over night in a Riga Airport Hotel. But they appeared the next day, a bit haggard, in Almaty to participate in the first game in which we were competitive enough but lost 3-2 on a last minute goal by a slick Kazak skater.

Oh well we’ve still got 5 games to go.

Unfortunately things went south from there – straight south. We did eke out one win  but got blown out and for the most part we were struggling, not only to keep the opposition from running up the score, but just to score at least 1 goal. I’d been named Captain of the Fox Team but my role was largely ceremonial and limited to exchanging pregame gifts with the opposing captain, shaking the referees’ hands and leading the team in pregame yell surrounding the goalie with my “forecheck back-check, paycheque-One Two Three Fox Team routine.”

But that was it – touching the puck was rare – scoring was more or less out of the question, assists were hard to come by. The only positive point was that we didn’t get any penalties. I did get a penalty shot as I was in on the goalie when a guy checked me pretty good from behind, and because they were up by 7 or 8, and feeling sorry for us, the ref generously awarded me a penalty shot which I flubbed.

So how did we manage to ‘win’ the tournament after being so outclassed out hustled and out played? Easy – the other teams were all disqualified. Disqualified because they hadn’t followed Recreational Tournament rules of restricting players to non active league players. So, as there was no official tournament winner, I, as captain of the ‘winner by default and fair play team’, accepted the trophy. 

There is an extensive development infrastructure that has developed a cadre of Kazak born NHL’ers and there are a lot of very good hockey players playing in the Kazakhstan Junior League – we know – we played against them.

But the tournament became a relatively minor footnote in the week long stay (Oct 11-18) in this jewel of a central Asian city with a booming economy ranking 5th in the world in millionaires (or was it billionaires?)

Let me list the highlights. Meeting Vlad: I was relaxing in the arena cafeteria between games when Christina, our team translator, came rushing in and said excitedly, ‘there’s someone who wants to meet you. ’When I inquired as to who that might be she said, ‘I
don’t know but he is old.’ Oh here he comes now.’ 

Vlad appeared, 5’10” stocky, full head of hair, a pleasant looking fellow. Vladimir Egorovich Bosenko, aged 73, with limited English but with an entourage eager to translate, former Soviet team hockey player in the 70’s, regular all Star in the Soviet professional league, playing for team Almaty Berkut in the 8 team tournament.

He had heard that there was ‘a big man’ ( they don’t say old they say big), playing for the Fox Team and he wanted to meet me. Imagine my surprise – in all the dozen or so European tournaments I have played in over the last years I had mostly always been by far, ‘the biggest’ and here was someone ‘bigger.’ I expressed my congratulations to Vlad and we became instant friends sharing our experiences and love of the game. 

Vlad wasn’t named to the 1972 Soviet team but watched the Moscow games from the stands. Here are some of Vlad’s thoughts that I, even with my limited Russian, had no difficulty understanding: Valarie Karlamov is a god, Bobby Clarke is a devil. There are only two ‘real’ hockey teams in the world,  Central Red Army and Montreal Canadians.

When I suggested a third – the ‘Thunder Bay Thunder’ he was intrigued: +70 repeat Gold medalists! Snoopy, Santa Rosa, California? Could he join? 

I told Vlad that I was pretty sure we could find room for him. He invited me to his home, I met his wife and family and saw his workshop, It turns out he is also an honored master talent in metallurgy. The undisputed highlight of the time in Kazakhstan was participating in the Regular Friday night Veterans’ Skate. Here we are pre-game. The two women more than held their own – they dominated. Vlad and I developed instant chemistry on the ice. His passes are exquisite. 

Vlad and I are signed up for a tournament in Prague in April, 2019.

Check out some of the players in the tournament.

Some names you will certainly recognize!

The post Hockey Without Borders – Chapter 2 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Thunder Bay Professor Travels the World

Latest Adventure Takes Him to the Himalayas at 14,000 ft

Reconnecting with Dr. Epp

Professor Walter Epp

I met Professor Walter Epp several years ago while playing in an “Oldies” tournament in Zell am See, Austria.  As part of a pick-up team composed of players from the Twin Cities, Colorado and Thunder Bay, Ontario, Walter was part of the Minnesota Old Timers 60+ team that won the Gold Medal in 2012 against teams from Austria, Finland, Canada and Germany.  The “Professor”, as he was affectionately called, hailed from Thunder Bay, Ontario.  He is an Associate Professor of History Education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and he joined the team while on a research trip in Europe.  A friend and noted local hockey acquaintance in Thunder Bay had played for the Minnesota team in 2010 and this connection and Walter’s personal account of the 2012 Europe trip that combined research and hockey can be found in a related article on this website.  Just search for Walter Epp.

Fast forward to Sept 24/25, 2018 at a seniors hockey tournament in Duluth.  For several years, Duluth has hosted an old-timers tournament of sorts (no officials) that includes teams from Mpls, Grand Rapids, Duluth and Thunder Bay.  And who should I run into playing for Thunder Bay…you guessed it, the Professor, Walter Epp.

While catching up with him at the tournament dinner party, he tells us about his latest adventure as a member of an organization called “Hockey Sans Frontieres”, or Hockey Without Borders.

This organization connects volunteer coaches with non-traditional hockey communities world-wide to help coach/develop youth hockey programs.  Some of the potential countries targeted in 2018-19 include Serbia, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, India, Bosnia, Greece, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.  For more information on this amazing organization, check out their website =>> HERE.

Walter on Hockey Without Borders

Coaching in Novi Sad

Since joining Hockey Sans Frontieres in 2018 as ‘Hockey Ambassador and Artist in Residence’ I have traveled to Leh, Ladakh (Himalayas), Athens, Thessaloniki, Novi Sad, Subotica, Sofia, Kranevo, Pilsen, Eindhoven, and Santa Rosa.

The goal of HSF is to support the development of hockey around the world and, while I like to play the game, as Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, I also love to teach and learn and share hockey history and legends and experiences through hockey poetry, prose, music and drama.

Most importantly however I encourage the athletes to express themselves artistically in poetry, prose and art about their hockey experiences and impressions on a template that can later be assembled into a sphere for display and viewing.

In October my hockey travels will take me to Savastopol, Crimea; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Bangkok, Thailand and Belgrade, Serbia where I will also take part in the 100th Anniversary commemorations of the end of WWI.

Hockey in the Himalayas?  Walter’s Account.

Thunder Bay hockey player sets world record.  Hockey in the Himalayas.

On February 6, 2018, Thunder Bay hockey player, Walter Epp, participated, as a member of the German based team, the Rainman All Stars, in the Guinness World Record ‘Highest Elevation Hockey Tournament’ in the Tangste region of Ladakh in northern India. 

The Rainman All Stars, made up of 19 players from England, Finland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Canada met on February 1 for a conditioning camp in Leh, Ladakh, at 3500 meters and played a series of exhibition games against teams from the US, Slovakia, Germany, Asia and a local team the Ladakh.  The exhibition games were played on natural ice during the early morning hours as the direct sun makes the surface unplayable during the afternoons.

On February 4th the 6 teams set out in local taxis, hockey kit packed in a separate transport truck, over a 6000 meter pass to Tangste region where the world record event was to take place.  The scenery was as spectacular as the mountains roads were treacherous.

The teams were billeted in local guest houses with no heat and no water where you could see your breathe in the mornings, where water bottles froze during the night and where toilet facilities were primitive.

The record setting event took place at 4323 meters in -35 C windchill temperatures.  Each team was assigned a military tent, pitched on the shores of the wind swept ice, as a dressing and crowded into the players’ tent between shifts.

When asked how the altitude effected the game Epp responded “you could definitely feel the thin air but by keeping the shifts short we were able to keep up a good pace and although oxygen was available only a few of the lads from England needed it.”

The tournament, although fiercely competitive, featured great camaraderie on and off the ice as teams and individuals adjusted to the temperature, altitude, accommodations, food and playing conditions. 

The highlight of the Himalayan Hockey experience for Epp, who at 70 was the oldest participating player, was the post tournament exhibition game against the local Ladakhi team that turned into the longest game of the tour with the locals repeatedly asking for “one more period please.”  It was, according to Epp, “shinny at its finest,”

Epp at Black Sea Hockey Camp, Kranevo, Bulgaria, April 2018

Other non-hockey highlights for Walter, and his wife Juanita, were Buddhist temples, ice stupas, visiting a local school, visiting the frozen salt Lake Pangong on the Chinese border, cattle and donkeys and packs of dogs roaming the streets of the town and villages, crossing the two highest drivable passes in the world and interacting with the friendliest people anywhere.

The return trip featured a stopovers in Dehli and Mumbai with Walter, in his new role as hockey ambassador for the organization Hockey Sans Frontieres, making guest coaching appearances in several countries before returning to Thunder Bay. 

More on Hockey in the Himalayas

There are several good videos and personal accounts of this remarkable hockey experience at a 14,000 foot elevation.  Here are a few that you will enjoy…

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2018/6/how-and-why-the-worlds-highest-altitude-ice-hockey-game-in-the-himalayas-took-pl

https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/hockey-world-record-in-himalayas-1296711-2018-07-26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXtqNvqiKDs

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/the-inside-story-of-the-highest-altitude-hockey-game-ever-played.html

Meanwhile, Back in the US

Epp, 2nd from left, front row

Walter not only travels to exotic locations abroad, but also plays in Canada and in US-based tournaments.  He traveled with his Thunder Bay team to the ever popular Snoopy’s tournament in Santa Rosa this past summer and his team won their age group.  As a writer and poet, Walter penned this poetic account of the championship game.

SNOOPY 2018

Play the game; You never know; The Ballad of Thunder; The way it was; 70+A Division; California Gold; As I saw it.

Billy on the puck

The outlook wasn’t rosy for the Thunder on that day
The nods were five to one against with but the final left to play
With our two lines against their three 
Oh t’would be a gruesome fray
They’d turn our legs to lead, they said
that we’d be easy prey.
They came from Colorado with ‘some ringers’ In the fold
They had come to California intent on
winning gold.

‘Let’s play the game,’ our captain snarled
 and sneered a wicked grin,
‘Our two lines are fast and strong
And plenty good to win,
Let’s see some Thunder pride,’ he said,
‘and show them they are wrong.’

‘Man for man we’ve got them beat
We’re fast we’re skilled we’re tough
‘Just let them feel the heat.’ he said
‘You know we’re good enough.’

‘Unleash the Thunder boys,’ he roared
As we took to the ice
And It wasn’t long until we scored
And made them pay the price
But they fought back (they weren’t bad)
And when they tied it up
We knew we needed someone big
To lead the Thunder to the cup.
A man to score a mighty goal
To put them back in place, to slow them down
To set them back and put them in a hole

And sure enough a man appeared
Thunder pride upon his face
‘I’m your man,’ he coldly sneered
I’m ready for the task
Clear a little lane for me
And I’ll blast one past his mask.’

Behind their net, back to the point
everything in sync
There he unleashed a fearful blast
That rattled round the rink
We all stood back and watched in awe
And as it sailed on past – time stood still
And to a man we thought
‘my gosh it’s moving fast.’

It had a seeing eye  – it seemed
and right there in mid flight
It started doing wondrous things
That were stunning to the sight
It dipped it dodged it curved it verved
It ricocheted around
It weaved it wove it swerved it swove 
It made a rumbling sound

It was a thing of beauty, I watched it sailing by,
And I watched it as it found the twine
In that corner way up high.
Above the goalie’s glove it flew
To the only place that had the space
to squeeze that rubber through.

A mighty goal – we’re up two-one
We’ve got em on the run
And now the boys relaxed and smiled
And started having fun
We shut them down they whined
they swore
The Thunder win five – one.
And now we’re back from Santa Rosa
As CHAMPIONS once more

Stay Tuned

As Walter makes his way around the world, playing and coaching in far-off regions of the globe, we can be certain there is more commentary to come.  Walter is currently in Savastopol presenting a lecture series at the U and this weekend he will be the guest of Hockey Yalta doing on and off ice sessions.  Stay tuned for more.  

Bill R/MHM Staff

The post Hockey Without Borders appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.