The Beer Leaguer
The podcast for the discerning beer league hockey player. We cover all things adult recreational hockey from folks that never played professionally, but just want to have fun and get a little better every game.
The Beer Leaguer
Locker Room Talk
A big reason we pick-up or continue to play hockey well past our athletic primes isn’t just the hope to be a 40-year-old NHL rookie Disney story, it’s having a group to hang out with a common interest. This episode Mason joins us to talk about what makes a locker room a good one, signs to look for to avoid a bad one, and how to help foster a good hang.
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A big reason we pick up and continue to play hockey well past our athletic primes isn't just the hope to be a 40-year-old NHL rookie Disney story. It's having a group to hang out with with a common interest. This episode, Mason joins us to talk about what makes a locker room good. One thing that makes or breaks having fun playing merely hockey above all else is people you play with. And most importantly with that is the mix of people you play with. And how you guys get along and, you know, how it is in the locker room and if you hang out outside the locker room or not. If you want to or if you don't. And that's this episode is all about that. Mason, once again, joining us. And that's what we're going to talk about is how do you make a good locker room or what makes a bad locker room. So Mason, you've now been on two teams with me. We can talk about and multiple other teams. I'm sure you've been on teams that have terrible locker rooms. Yes. And he has a good long well. And you've seen our team kind of evolve over years. People come and go. And I think the locker room vibe has pretty much stayed the same in that time. I don't think it's changed a whole lot.
Mason:Yeah, pretty generally, it's pretty good.
Roz:So that being said, what just as a 10,000 foot view idea of this, what do you think makes a good locker room?
Mason:I feel like everyone has to be almost not in the same mindset, but a similar mindset. Like you can't have guys that want to be super chill and just play beer league hockey and then the guys that want to play for a Stanley Cup. I feel like those two generally don't mix, but guys that want to go out there and fun, be competitive, maybe to a certain extent, but not overly competitive. Or if you all want to compete, you got to get a room full of competitive dudes.
Roz:Yeah, I think that that's probably the easiest thing is. I don't know a better way to put it, but then your level of give a crap. Yeah, that's that's what I always call it of. There's a threshold of it. You know, at one end, you have people that are just I'm just out here for a little skate. You know, just get a little exercise in during the week. And at the other end, yeah, you have the people that are. Every game is this is the game that the Scouts are going to see. Yeah, that, you know, 45 year old me is making it to the NHL. They're going to be so impressed with, you know, some dirty goal that I scored or, you know, some shot that I blocked or something like that. And they're giving me the call. And I think those are your two extreme ends. And it's where in there you lie on that.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:Yeah, I think it's very important that people aren't. Yeah, at least they don't have to be exactly the same, but generally the same. I think you can get away with maybe one person on kind of far one way and maybe one person further the other way. And that's about it beyond that.
Mason:Yeah, I think I think I agree with that on our team. But like, I don't know if we have like, we have like, we have try hard or people that are competitive. I wouldn't say competitive. I wouldn't say we have a try hard. I think I'm the try hard a lot of times because I think that I try hard. I'm not I'm not I'm not out there like trying to injure the other team with my try hardness.
Roz:Hear the try hard because you try hard, but you don't try hard.
Mason:Yes, the hardest.
Roz:You try the most hard.
Mason:Yeah, I'm the hardest when I try.
Roz:Yeah, I don't I don't think we have. Yeah, I don't think we have a try hard on the team either. We definitely have people that are more competitive than others.
Mason:For sure.
Roz:And we do have I don't know. I don't know. Do we have anybody that's at the other end of the spectrum, though?
Mason:Kind of, especially this season. I think we have guys that are like more interested in socializing, which is cool. But the minute like a game gets competitive, they're kind of like, all right, well, I'm not a try hard, so I'm not going to really try hard compete. You know, I'd say we have one or two people that aren't like, they're not super lax like the whole game, but the minute things get tough, I feel like we kind of just roll back into the non-competitive kind of mindset.
Roz:Yeah, I could agree with that. I could see that. I can see that. OK, so that's what you think makes a good locker room. And I agree. I think that's one of the most important things. I don't know if it's the most important, but I think you definitely need that to be somewhat the same. What do you think contributes for being a bad locker room? Because I think that it's easier to find what's bad, and the inverse of that is what helps make stuff good, if that makes sense.
Mason:I think so. Yeah, what makes a bad locker room? Both of our teams right now are fine, but I would definitely say our other team, there's not a lot of fun in a locker room. You know, it's just like you come, put your stuff on. Sometimes there's a good conversation. And I don't know if it's bad teams had a lot of flux. So I think maybe like, stick around and the team for a while helps with that. But what makes it bad? I would say, and I'm not a beer bucket guy, but I think not having a beer bucket kind of robs you from that social aspect of like, who's getting the beer? Who's passing out the beer? You know, just like little things that revolve around the beer bucket.
Roz:But I don't know if it's necessarily having, because I'll say for anybody that doesn't know, it's we have a bucket that gets passed around for every game. Somebody's in charge of bringing beer for the game. And that's just like, usually it's a couple people have a pregame, but it's more the postgame beers, people hanging out. And I don't think it's necessarily just having the bucket. I think it's the fact that that kind of forces people to hang out.
Mason:I don't say forces.
Roz:That sounds really bad. It encourages people that might otherwise, like if we go out after a game, because we'll still go out after a game. But it's a much smaller group of people that go out. It encourages people to stick around that might not want to go out and just hang out in the locker room for an extra 20 minutes or half hour after a game. And people are having beers. You can have a road pop, or we're getting to a weird spot where we have a pretty decent number of people that don't drink at all after games but still hang out. Which I think that says a lot for that. They want to hang out in the locker room and hang out with everybody. So I think it's that. Because I think you could have a similar thing if your rink has a bar in it. There are rinks that have bars that people go to right away. I think it'd be a similar thing if everybody just went to the bar after the game. Whereas for us, you have to hop in your car and drive generally. I mean, it's not far. It's usually under 10 minutes, but depending where you live, it might be 10 minutes in the opposite direction of where you are. And it's like, well, at that point, you're already in your car. I'm like, well, I'm already in my car. I want to go that way. Yeah, I mean, I see everybody, but I could just turn around and go home. Where's the beer bucket idea? And then also, like I said, if there is a bar in the place, it is where you're right here. You can be like me and sit there half dressed and in the locker room talking to everybody. But I think, and that's why I kind of say that things that are bad, I don't think not having something like a beer bucket is a bad thing, but I think having it really helps.
Mason:Yeah, I guess you could call it like a ritual, right? Like the beer buckets are a ritual, or going out to drink, it's like a ritual. Having like some kind of shared ritual, I think helps. And not having it, I think, is an attractor. And to add to that, and not ask us what you're saying, sorry. And anyway, having a good captain, like somebody that will foster communication or just BS in the locker room. In previous leagues, I've had captains that are okay, but just don't communicate as well or coordinate things as well. And then you hear these nightmare stories. We just had our league recently where the captain brings in a ringer, takes things way too seriously, and then you kind of put your team in a really bad situation. And I feel like that could really go down.
Roz:I could say the reason you're saying you don't want to be a kiss ass is I'm the captain of the one team. So anybody didn't know. No, but I think that to me, that's one of those things of... For a beer league captain, there's not a whole lot you have to do, honestly. Generally, your captain of your beer league team is the person that just organizes stuff. And anything beyond that, I think, is extra. But I think the main extra thing beyond just getting the team together is that stuff, is getting people to talk about stuff. I try and make sure if people aren't talking, I do try and bring stuff up in the locker room that is not very just like, oh, let me talk to Mason the whole time. Yeah, you know, I'll try and bring stuff up that might interest other people and things. And I know at least for us, for our main team, that one of the big things is doing stuff outside the locker room. Because a lot of us see each other outside of playing hockey. And it's not always an entire team. Sometimes it's just hanging out with somebody, maybe doing a podcast with somebody. But it's also like we've done stuff like gone to watch hockey with people on the team. And I don't think we've ever done a whole team going to watch hockey, but we've done small groups of people gone. Same thing, we go to baseball games in the summer as a team. And it's stuff like that. It's not like required events of things, and that kind of stuff, those different things of doing that, I think that fosters you talking more about stuff and having, like you said, shared experiences then that helps with that and helps bring stuff up and talk about things. I think there's a lot to be said for that. Whereas on our other team, I don't think people really do stuff outside of the team.
Mason:Yeah, not that I've heard. But that's like, especially for somebody like me, you may not know because I do this podcast. I'm pretty much introverted and I'm like an active listener. So even if there's like five guys in the locker room, all talking about the baseball game, I feel more engaged because I can listen to the fun story they had at the baseball game. I think that helps a lot.
Roz:Yeah, I think that's a big, I think that's a huge thing. Again, if you don't do it, it's not bad, but it helps. It helps foster that. Doing stuff like that, specifically for us, I'll just say we have here in Cleveland, Ohio, in the US for all of our foreign listeners, we have a minor league hockey team that people go to games at. And, you know, like I said, we've gone to games, some small factions of our team have gone to games there. But we've also gone to Guardians games, because they do like a standing room ticket for cheap, which has been great. And some people bring their whole families and they kind of come hang out with the group for a little while and then go hang out with their family and back and forth. Some people just come hang out with the group and stuff like that's fun. And it's nothing to set up. There's no things to doing that. So if anybody is looking for stuff to do, to try and foster a little bit better locker room relationship, which honestly, fostering a better locker room vibe might be you realize that you guys all hate the same person. You got to get rid of somebody, because that's a thing. But that's like a super easy thing, because I'm the one that usually organizes all this stuff, and I don't like having to do a whole lot of work for that. So I'm a big fan of if you can find places that do like standing room tickets for something or general admission or something like that. You know, it's a fun thing to do. All right, so what else do you think makes for a bad locker room?
Mason:Makes for a bad locker room. High temper guys, I would say. I personally haven't had to deal with it, but you don't want a guy coming into your locker room, like all ticked off after a game, slamming stuff around like I could see that, where that would like poison the locker room really quickly. Yes. Yeah.
Roz:I don't have anything to add to that. I've been with people there like that. It's tough to deal with. It's... This is where it gets... Stuff like that is where it gets kind of tricky if you're adding people to your team, because you don't... if you don't know them. Or if you know people, if somebody on your team knows a person, but they've never played sports with them, it's real hard to tell if they're going to be like that or not. That's... Because that's really a sport-specific thing. It might be somebody that they're... Oh, this is my buddy from work. He's so super chill. And then you find out, like, oh, man, this dude is like... You know, a maniac. I want to do anything competitive. So that's... That's one of those tricky things. It's hard to know until you've... Well, played sports with somebody or done stuff like that with people. So that's... Yeah, I don't know. Do you think of any good ways to kind of suss that out?
Mason:Oh, now you're making me think. I had a tryout for our team in a summer league game when we started working together. So I think you answered your question, and you got to make them try out before you get them committed.
Roz:Yeah, if you're able to, that's a good way to do it. I'll tell you one of my secrets. The way we do stuff is we usually have people try kind of over the summer, because it's a smaller league, and it's a lot more relaxed. We have people come out and try playing summer with us and see how it goes. And part of it is just to see if these people, if they're too good or if they're terrible, but it's also to try and see how they are outside of, like off of the rink. That is also a big thing, too, to see. One of the things I always say is, is the person a good hang?
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:That's kind of my check for stuff, because I'll put up with somebody that's not awful for playing. I don't want to say anybody, but I'll put up with somebody that's not great on the ice, if they're super cool to hang out with, and they're fun in the locker room, and they're a good hang, versus somebody that might be really good, but just no one wants to be around them.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:But that's kind of always, but that's been my trick, is invite somebody out for that. And we can do the same thing if there's open skates or stick and pucks or something like that. And like, hey, let's just, I just kind of want to see if you'll fit, and you can always use the guise of making sure that they're going into an appropriate division. You know, assuming that you have somewhat delineated divisions with what you play, you can always use that as a thing. And I just want to make sure that you're not either too good or you don't want to say too bad, probably. But yeah, make sure you're not too good, or you should be playing lower or something like that, that you'll fit in okay. But with that, kind of see how they are off ice.
Mason:Yeah. What about you, Ross? What do you think makes a bad locker room?
Roz:A bad locker room? I think those are a couple of big good things that you mentioned with it. Try to think of locker rooms I've been in that have been not good. If you have a locker room that is very much in small fractions, where you have these two, three people only kind of hang out and talk with these two, three people, these couple people only hang out and talk to these couple people. When you start having that, which is real easy, especially in lower level beer league, because you usually have somebody joins a team, and then they go, oh, we need guys. Let me get one or two of my buddies. And then somebody else goes, oh, we need somebody else. I have a buddy or two that can play. And if they don't kind of start merging together, you can real easily wind up with a super, not toxic locker room, but very fractured. And people don't want to really interact with anybody outside of their little groups. I've seen that a lot.
Mason:Yeah. Interesting.
Roz:And that's the way our league does it, where you have a beginner team that's really just kind of random people thrown together. And usually, like, year two, year three, something like that, is that team kind of starts to, you know, maybe some of the better players like leave to go play a higher division and then they need more guys and start bringing in. That's something that's pretty common to have happen because people will bring in, you know, you have one person that brings in one or two buddies and like, oh, these two guys know each other, and they have a couple other friends that want to start playing and they'll bring them in. And so it's real, real common to have shortly after people leave to go play in more appropriate divisions as you get like a real fractured team that is kind of like three or four teams on one that just happen to have the same jerseys.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:So look, I've seen that and it sucks. It's I've been on teams like that. I've seen teams like that, you know, because that stuff real easily. I think you have to be very aware of it in the locker room because it seems like nothing in the locker room. Like it seemed like no big deal. And then it's like, oh, if you're going out after a game, everybody kind of goes in their own little groups. It seemed like no big deal. And it real quickly shows up on the ice where, you know, because I've seen I've seen firsthand stuff where you have people that like, oh, this, when these three people are on the ice, they only pass to each other. They literally will not look at anyone else. And, you know, they and then certain people have to play together. They won't play with anyone else out there. And, you know, stuff like that, like real petty sounding stuff that sounds like you're talking about a little kids team.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:But it's like, yeah, no, it's a bunch of adults, but they're acting like, you know, whiny little six year olds. And I've seen that I've seen that it sucks because you have that and that stuff, you know, bleeds onto the ice, which then usually is on the bench. And then that bleeds into the locker room. And it's just like this festering thing that just kind of keeps, you know, it's like a snowball. That's a snowball thing of going down. So that's a really bad thing that I've seen. So I think you have to be very careful of not having little, you know, factions on your team like that.
Mason:Yeah, interesting. Do you think age at all plays a part in it? Like, I remember when I first started playing and I was younger, so it didn't seem like a big deal to me. But like it was mostly like dental school students, ironically. So it's like, you know, half the team was real young dudes. And we weren't like astronomically good, even though most of them were Canadian. Also ironic. But yeah, like, do you think the age mix matters?
Roz:I don't think it matters unless it's like very slanted one way or the other. I think ideally you'd have a pretty decent mix of ages. And I think the next best thing is probably everybody kind of clustered generally the same. But I think I only think it gets to be a problem if you have like if you're like that, like, okay, so you have, you know, 12 guys on the team, 10 of them are kind of the same age. And then the other two are like 10 years difference. That's probably not going to be great. Yeah. And not that I don't think it. I think stuff like that makes makes the team like a bad locker room, but it's just you're in very different stages of life. Like I think of our team and like we have people that like, you know, are just getting married. We have people that, you know, have, you know, little kids. We have people that have kids that are all their kids are in college. We have people whose kids are out of college already. You know, like we have all different stuff, you know, we have we have people that are single. We have people that are, you know, have been married for 30 years like you. And and it's it's I think it's because it's a mix. It works right. Whereas I'm just thinking if we had if everybody else on the team was like, oh, yeah, you know, I I've been married for like 20 years. I have my kids are in college or out of college already. And that's it. Then you have like two people that are like, I'm still single, no kids. It'd be like, you know, very, very, very different, you know, shared experiences and then very different kind of like, you know, what you can do because like, you know, I think that's where you get into the stuff of people that, you know, go out after games versus not. Yeah, stuff like that, because people with, hey, you've got like a bunch of little kids at home. Yeah, you're probably not going out after a game.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:You know, versus, you know, people that are single and are like, oh, let's stay out until four in the morning. I got nothing to do.
Mason:Right.
Roz:You know, so I, I don't know, is that, is that kind of what you've seen with that or?
Mason:Yeah, I don't think it's been a problem in any locker room I've been in. I was curious. I know like what seems to foster like some good relationships on a lot of teams we've played with is just kind of like you said, like guys are around the same age. Their kids probably play on the same hockey team, so they like can talk about hockey or can talk about like youth hockey things. Like maybe you're not on the same team, but you play in the same division. You can talk about that kind of stuff. So yeah, I was mostly curious.
Roz:Yeah, I think that that's a big thing. I know there are some teams that the teams are together because their kids play together.
Mason:Right.
Roz:And so like all the like the parents have gotten together to make their own team. So there is that. But because our team, it's pretty it's kind of a spread of stuff. It's nothing. Nobody's super young or super old. But yeah, there's a good 20 year spread from of guys.
Mason:Right now, yeah. Some of our older players dropped out. The outliers. Right.
Roz:They moved away.
Mason:I feel like for a large chunk of the time I was on the team, like a quarter of the team, maybe more had had kids playing on a local, local high school team or I think it was high school.
Roz:Yeah, no. Yeah. And I think that that's they were so they weren't necessarily playing on the same team. It was just people. Again, it's just the number keeps saying this probably over and over shared experiences because you hear it now where there's a lot of people that well, not as much as I think everybody's kids are kind of grown. But it was a thing for quite a while of like, oh, yeah, your kids playing in this year end tournament. Oh, we used to do that a couple of years ago with my kid, and that was really cool. And yeah, oh, you know, they they knew different coaches around the area or refs. I mean, we have a guy that refs high school and like he had mentioned stuff and they people knew who he was talking about with other refs or coaches or whatever. So I think that that. Again, I think any kind of shared experiences like that can't help. Doesn't have to be same team.
Mason:Right.
Roz:Necessarily. But, you know, just just knowing that because people could talk to me about kids hockey. I'm like, I don't know. I don't like, you know, I know nothing of of little kids hockey. I barely know anything about high school hockey. You know, I never played any of those things.
Mason:So like, I don't know.
Roz:They didn't have hockey at my high school when I went there. So, you know, I don't know any of that stuff. But yeah, I think that is a big thing that comes up. I said less and less now because the kids are getting older. But that was a thing for quite a while that people talked about.
Mason:Yeah. Well, it's fun. After you've been on our team for so long. I mean, I've been on our team for seven plus years. And when I first started playing, you were going on road trips with a buddy of ours' kid. And now the kid plays with us. He was like maybe 11 when you told me the story about it. And now he plays on our team and he's a good kid, so it makes it easy to play with them. And it's always fun when he's around, but I could see where that could go wrong. And it's like, oh, well, your kid's a douche. I don't want to play with that kid.
Roz:That is true. I guess that could be. But that's the same kind of thing, though, like I said, of you kind of have to vet the people beforehand. You know, because honestly, I wouldn't trust somebody's, you know, to tell me that their kid, no, my kid's cool. Like, it's cool. He'll be fine. Like, I think I trust that. You know, it's like, I mean, I knew him. A couple other people knew him of stuff. So we're like, yeah, you know, he came. Honestly, same thing. He came played summer with us. And we're like, you know, super fun for summer and stuff. So it's. Yeah, it's that. But that's also the same thing as when you have a team that's been around and been together for a while, because the bulk of our team has been together for probably close to 10 years now. I would say.
Mason:Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm one of the relatively newer people. I mean, within our core group, I'm one of the relatively newer people, but everyone that's been there longer than me is only around a couple of years.
Roz:So yeah, I'd say about 10 years. And I think that adds a lot too, because we can even say on our other team, you can tell the people that have been on that team for a long time together. Yeah, because you get to know stuff about people like. You know, I guess sometimes you probably know, like weird, intimate things you don't want to know about people. You probably find out that stuff. But I mean, like stuff like I've I've seen people's kids grow up. You know, and like met a bunch of people's kids, and I know pretty much everybody's spouse at this point. You know, you know, but I mean, that's the thing. If you just kind of learn that stuff, it's not like I'm going like, OK, well, let me get your your spouse's contact info for emergencies. Bring your kids in so you can meet them. But it's just at random stuff. You know, the kids come to games and you know, they've they've come to, you know, after games in the locker room or something, or you know, we've gone to one of these outside hockey events, and the spouse is gone or, you know, things like that. And I think that helps a lot with things, because that's again, there's stuff that I don't know. Like I said, I know nothing of kid hockey. I know nothing of high school hockey, but I've learned a decent amount because people have talked about it. And like I know people's kids, I know what they've gone through and hear about it. And so it again falls into I didn't first hand share the experience, but I second hand have shared the experience with people.
Mason:Right. Yeah.
Roz:So what else? Do you have any other any other good or bad things that you know for making a locker or things? If not that, things that you think can help make a maybe not a bad locker room, but a mediocre locker room better.
Mason:Two things come to mind. Shameless plug for our previous episode. Clean your gear so you're not the smelly guy. And what I love when one of the dudes on our teams in the locker room is just like the way he reads off the score sheet. It's like silly. And I don't give a crap about the stats, but it's just like it's a fun little thing to do. And I think I think that could help.
Roz:I think that's not well. We used to have a I don't even call it a locker room.
Mason:Prize trophy. Yeah, it's like every I feel like every NHL team does it. And that was fun, too. Yeah, it's like it's like the helmet or token that you have to run for each game.
Roz:Yeah. And that's we had that for like two years. We stopped doing it because we were doing so poorly that we kept saying no one deserved it. But I mean, I think dumb stuff like that, because that's something if I feel like if I told anybody else not on the team, they would think, well, that sounds really dumb. I think they think it sounds really childish, but it was fun. It was a fun thing. So for me, that stuff I've seen is I try and do stuff and I don't care how dumb some of it is. You know, like sometimes we have music in the locker room, especially if people aren't talking. I'll put music in the locker room for playing stuff. And we used to I think you remember this back in the day, we played a lot of because I would ask what people wanted. And it was a lot of like metal and hard rock. And you know, it's like, I'll play some play some, you know, Judas Priest or some slayer. And now, like last year, it was over the summer, I think, for we were like doing a run for the playoffs. I was playing elevator music. Yeah, you know, and it's dumb. But I think people are starting to enjoy it because it was dumb. It's like that. Like I do have I've bought stuff like the door magnet.
Mason:That's cool.
Roz:I had a big magnet that we put on the locker room door. So people knew what locker room to go into, because as we said in other episodes, no one knows how to read a board. That's just apparently an epidemic across all all levels of hockey in all parts of the world. No one knows how to read that. So I would do that for a while. It was dumb and people liked it. You know, and I try it. I know for me, I try and have stuff like that kind of in my back pocket in case we need it. You know, stupid things. Trying to think of some other some other some other dumb. What's what's what's some other dumb stuff that we've done, Mason?
Mason:That's all their dumb stuff. I'm trying to think. I'm I'm drawn a blank. I don't know. We always like it's it's fun to have little onside jokes and like shoot little little jabs at guys like not mean spirited jabs, you know. But that that stuff takes time to develop. Other stupid things.
Roz:I think, OK, I mean, I'll say along with that. We do have a text chain with basically the whole team. Yeah, that generally is quiet, except for I'd say like twice a week, someone will post either a dumb meme or here's a stupid thing I saw on Reddit. And then it just turns into like everyone chiming in of whatever. And that a lot of times carries over into games. Let's talk about it. Yeah, trying to think of other. I do. I know. I know one of them. I have two other ideas. I'm wondering if you're going to come up with that, but that I think have kind of been things. Yeah, I do.
Mason:Yeah, OK. I have ideas. I was going to say we should do another podcast just on how to communicate with your team outside of that, because our text Jane is has some consternation around it. It's real, real funky. No, no spoilers. But anyways, I know you used to do like fun little trophies. This is before I was on the team.
Roz:Oh, this is on this team. This is my old, old team.
Mason:Yeah, I used to like silly trophies that always sounded fun. And then you've done hockey cards for us, even like just digital ones, and those are pretty cool.
Roz:Yeah, so that's the two things I used to do with my and this is like in the very old. This is my roller teams. We used to do a end of year banquet. And that's what we bill it as, when in reality, it was the party room and the Donatos. Because, you know, they don't require anything. They're just like, oh, you want the room? OK. Like, yeah, we're gonna have like 10, 12 people. That's fine. Yeah, you can have it on Saturday, you know, two o'clock or whatever. We do that. And what we would do is it was me and my cousin. We're in charge of this. Is we had we had awards for everybody, like everybody got an award. Well, we had we had major awards of like, you know, the goal leader, the point leader, stuff like that. Then we had awards people voted on. There were things like who had who's got the best shot on the team, who's got the best, who's the best passer, who's the best defensive player, who's the best offensive player, you know, try to do some different stuff. Those like people were voted on for things, stuff. And then the other thing we did is we made an award for every person. So even if you didn't win any of these, everybody got one. And they were they were funny awards. Usually on something that we would, you know, that we'd make fun of you for during the game that we'd do. It was all inside joke stuff. Yeah, all like one guy. He won a couple of times. We did this for like four or five years. He won every year was something about breaking sticks because he would just like he would somehow break like 34 sticks a year. Yeah, every year his award was something about breaking sticks. You know, stuff like that. And that was that was a fun thing because, you know, I said it was a party room at Donato's always. Donato's is a pizza place, if you guys don't know. And it was just, you know, a couple hours and people would come and, you know, we'd get some pizzas and hang out and give each other dumb awards. And, you know, I actually have one of my awards is on my because I won our that we were the team. We were called the Whalers after the Hartford Whalers. Because apparently I only play on teams that are after defunct franchises.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:Yeah. And we had an award for we call it was Whaler of the Year Award. It was just like a generic kind of like I think the way we put it is like did the most on and off ice contributions to the team. And I won that. And it's sitting. It's been sitting on my mantle. Everything.
Mason:So proud of that.
Roz:I am very proud of it. Very proud of it. I wasn't even the captain of that team. The captain was very upset that I would win that award.
Mason:Really?
Roz:Oh, yeah, because he thought he deserved it because he was captain. Well, of course. So yeah, but no, like like we did that. That was super fun. That's a fun thing to do with people to do something like that. And then the hockey cards thing. I will put a link because I did a video on YouTube about making hockey cards. A lot of youth teams do that. And they have like services that do it. But it seriously takes you like no skills and just maybe like a couple hours with Photoshop or GIMP or whatever your photo editor of choices to do that. You just need pictures from of your team. And it's really easy to do.
Mason:I think that was the season before I started. OK, yeah, digital hockey cards. OK, yeah.
Roz:One year I did actually do physical. I went and got them printed out at Kinko's and did that. Now you're getting to see why I spend way too much money on this hockey. Doing stuff like that. But yeah, that's I mean, that's a fun thing to do. You know, it was a neat thing. I did that with my same old roller team. That's where I started doing those cards and on the card backs because we didn't really have stats to put on there. They just were funny things about people. Yeah, like that's all it was. Like one of the guys. So and OK, guys, this is like 20 years ago. So it made sense. We found a MySpace photo of him. That was hilarious. And that's what we used instead of a hockey photo. And the whole back of his card, instead of just saying anything about hockey was just about how we said he used to be a member of Color Me Bad. That's an old like R&B pop group. OK, that very, very, it's very 90s thing. Yeah, it would have been kind of like the equivalent of an even cheesier version of like, like 98 degrees or so much. Yes. All the card was is just about that. Like everyone else has had funny hockey things and then like, oh, they won this award from us and stuff like that. And his was just about this whole backstory that used to be in the band. That's what the photo looked like.
Mason:I was expecting you to like, just have his profile of bad HTML and CVSS on the back of his card.
Roz:Yeah, that's that's also how I learned to do a whole bunch of bad website stuff was making those cards. Yeah, that's what they originally were. No, so the two things that I thought you were going to bring up for stuff on our team that and this isn't like particular like specific things, but I think it's the idea of this stuff is kind of fun is one. I always announce our lineup before the game. I know a lot of teams don't change their lineups. Really, they just kind of everybody knows their thing. And generally, our lineup doesn't really change for with who's there. It's generally the same stuff, but I always I always announce it. And I know that you may some particular love to because after I announce the forward lines, I always say the same thing.
Mason:Yep.
Roz:And I know you love to to yell that out. I think other people think it's funny, too. I think they do. I think they laugh at it.
Mason:So I'm supposed to say it.
Roz:Oh, it's up to you if you want to. I don't know.
Mason:Everyone else on D.
Roz:That's that's what I always. Yeah, that's always the thing. And then the other thing that this has persisted now for a couple of years. And I don't say it that much anymore, but I think the rest of you guys have kind of picked up on it is one of my favorite things that I always say. Well, not anymore. My favorite things for hockey is I love a good dump out of the puck, getting the puck out of the offense alone. And I think I drilled this into everybody enough that now everyone else says instead of me is love a good sexy dump.
Mason:Yeah, I say it for sure.
Roz:I know you say it. A chunk of other people say it too. And I know that's where I go with the things of it's dumb. It's a dumb thing to say. But people have picked up on it a little bit. I think it's fun. That's a fun team saying.
Mason:Yeah, team mantra.
Roz:So, all right. What else do you have, Mason? Do you have any other ideas for things that you can do if you have a, I'll say, a mid locker room, and you want to try and get it better?
Mason:I don't know if this is really a locker room, per se. There are a couple of organizational things, I think, that help make, just make life easier as a key player. Having, like, Bad Jap, I think is super helpful. There are some applications that, like, you can easily check in and out of. And that way, you know, like, oh, shoot, like, we're going to be real short-handed tonight. I need to maybe not eat cake for dinner. And then having the lineup is, like, so helpful. Like, you have your little whiteboard, you have magnets on it now, which is cool, too. But just, like, no, I'm like, okay, this is who I follow. And if it has their last name, like, especially if you're a newer player, you're like, oh, I'm following, I'm following Jones. I can see his name on his jersey. Like, I know who to follow. I want to jump on the ice. So I think, I think that's the.
Roz:Yeah, that that's the thing that I really started doing that because we had new players and I couldn't just say, you know, oh, you're following Mason because they're like, OK, cool. Who's Mason? Which which one is Mason? Like, oh, shoot. OK, that's right. You don't know who people are. I know that can be awkward because I honestly I had that on our other team when I started this year. You know, like you're following this person. I'm like, I don't know who that is. This is literally my first game. I don't know who that who you're saying I follow. I only know like three other people on this team, and it's not one of them crap.
Mason:Yeah, yeah. So.
Roz:Yeah, I think a little bit of organization does does help a lot. I will always. I don't know what I would say. I always try and promote for Ben Chap because I love them because it does a lot of cool stuff. But there are other things out there that do similar things. But it does. I think from a non administrative point of view, I think it is really nice to know. Kind of, yeah, who's showing up for the game? How many guys are going to have? You know, just because it is a difference of like, OK, is it a, you know, 10, 15 game where we're going to have 10 skaters? Or is the 10, 15 game where we're going to have seven skaters? You know, should I take a nap before the game? Because I'm going to be really gassed. Or is it a game where we're going to have 19 guys and like, oh, well, I was iffy on if I was going to make it, but maybe I won't now. Kind of thing. I think that is being on both ends of that. Now I think that is helpful to to know that kind of stuff. So, any other thoughts of what people can do to help out locker room culture or help foster a better locker room, or things to avoid to not have a bad locker room?
Mason:I think I've covered everything that I can think of. I mean, it's just like in life, Google used to say, don't be evil, and now they're evil. It's just like, just don't be a dick.
Roz:Yeah, that's a good. That's a good point. Yeah, just don't be a dick about stuff. And for me, the thing that I've noticed over years and being on a couple of different teams and just seeing, especially seeing like our team, how much it's changed from what started. Is just realize that even though it's just really cocky, it's just some dudes that you probably see once a week, maybe twice a week. Is it is people that are they have other stuff going on? That's a big thing I noticed is a lot of people don't realize and it's like a normal life kind of lesson. But the people have crap going on with stuff and I'm not saying you have to give everybody unlimited leeway for being a jerk about things. But it's similar to making a good work environment. Yeah, you know, but the big difference is, is a good work environment. I think people generally don't care if they don't really get along with people they work with because they just work with them. Whereas, if you don't get along with people you're playing hockey with, especially if it's barely hockey, you know, it's not like you're playing pros or something. You're not getting paid for this. You're paying to do this. So why would you want to hang out with people you don't like?
Mason:Yeah, it's supposed to be fun.
Roz:Yeah, there's there is nothing wrong with saying, hey, I still enjoy playing hockey, just not playing hockey with these people. Like, there's nothing wrong with that if there's people you're not getting along with, especially if you're on a team that it is like, you know, fraction into a couple groups and it's not fun. Or maybe everybody gets along super well and you're the new person and you're just not part of anything. You know, there's nothing wrong with saying you're looking for a new team. I mean, hopefully there's other avenues you can go through to move on to another team and find other people that play or find a different pick up game to play in or something. So you don't have to be stuck on. On a team, it's not fun because I. For me, a huge part of the enjoyment. Of playing beer league is the non hockey stuff. Yeah, you know, I mean, the hockey, obviously the hockey is fun. I like playing hockey, but I could also just go play stick and puck like twice a week. If that's all I want to do, you know, or go find a pick up. But the big fun of it is be getting to hang out with people is the locker room before and after games is like the chatter on the bench during games, you know, all that, all that kind of stuff that that's kind of the fun of it. So if you're not having fun doing that, I think it's it's important to try and find some way to have fun doing that. You know, you can always try changing the locker room, especially if it's a new team, you know, and some of the ideas we brought up of, you know, trying to foster some, you know, good communication back and forth with everybody and talking about stuff. And again, I'll say shared experiences that people have that are stuff you can, you know, I'm trying to sound not super cheesy, but I don't know if I can say it. The shared experiences you can bond over. Yeah, you know, it sounds cheesy, but it's true. And that's it's that kind of stuff that I think helps build that camaraderie for things. And honestly, if your league is, you know, big enough, that's how you find friends. Because if your league is big enough, people probably know people on other teams. And that's how you can get other like minded people. And maybe it might be, hey, maybe I want to, you know, move to another team because this guy said, I get, you know, things that get along better with these other people or bring in people from another team that you think would fit in and help them out. I think that's very important that it's it's beer league. It shouldn't be a pain in the butt. You shouldn't dread going to it. You know, you shouldn't. You should have fun with it. If it's not fun anymore, there's something something from that needs to change.
Mason:Yeah, I agree.
Roz:Any any final words, Mason?
Mason:Um, I'm going to end on a high note and just keep my don't be a don't be a D comment. That was. That was some wise wisdom.
Roz:That's that's that's good life advice.
Mason:Yeah, right there. I don't know if we're past our FCC, a little bit of curse words.
Roz:I appreciate it.
Mason:It's not really a curse word, so I'm not going to do that.
Roz:It's all right. OK, so like Mason said, don't be a dick on the team. Don't be the dick on the team, especially. That's that you never want to be that. And honestly, you're probably not going to know you are. So just try and notice the signs. If everybody's hanging out together, but not with you, it's probably you. You know, so try and be somewhat aware. Like I said, I think a lot of it is treat it similar to how you treat being at work, because these are people you want to have, you know, probably longer relationships with with stuff, and you're going to be spending, you know, a decent amount of time with probably every week, a couple hours every week. But unlike work, don't put up with it being crappy people, because that's it's not worth it. So, you know, have an enjoyable time. It's barely it's supposed to be fun. It's not serious. Yeah, you're supposed to have a good time with it. This is this is where you get your weird friends that you talk to everybody about and stuff. That's what it's supposed to be where you go home and tell your family or go to work and be like, Oh, this guy that I play with. Oh, man. Let me say what he did this week. That's what you're supposed to have that kind of stuff. Yeah, you know, not not. Oh, yeah, I'm so exhausted from having to deal with these people. You're not supposed to have that from Beer League.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:I think I think that wraps it up. I think that's a good, good coverage of stuff. Hopefully that helped somebody cope with some good ideas for things to do. Or, if not encourage them to go find a team that they enjoy more with it, or make their team the team that people enjoy being on. That's kind of fun to have everybody want to play on your team.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:It's a cool thing to have. All right. That's it. That's all we got. As always, I will say that I appreciate any subscriptions or likes or reviews on whatever platform you're listening to this on that helps get the show out to more people. And like I said, I'll have some of the cool links and stuff we talked about in the show notes and show notes are always available. And I don't ever say this. I probably should show notes are available at the beerleaguer.com. Should probably mention that more.
Mason:Yeah.
Roz:Yeah. You can say, well, because if people don't know where to get show notes, I mean, it should be in your podcast app. However, you're getting this. But yeah, if not, the beerleaguer.com has all these things and all the links and past episodes and stuff.
Mason:I'm going there right now.
Roz:Go check that out for all your important, really hockey needs. All right. Thanks, everybody. We'll catch you in the next one.
Mason:Yeah.
