If you're a hockey parent, sooner or later you're going to find yourself in one of four positions at a game. You'll either be running the clock, keeping the score sheet, manning the penalty box, or running the music. Now aside from the penalty box, which is the best seat in the house and also allows you to chew out your kid when they do something stupid, running the music and playing DJ is about the most fun you can have out of the four "volunteer parent" positions. It's also pretty important. Let me explain.
Picture this...
It's Saturday morning at 7:15 AM. You arrive an hour before the 8:15 AM game, just like coach asks you to, and you head to the concessions stand to grab a cup of really crappy coffee. Normally, you would have stopped and got REAL coffee, but your youngest kid couldn't find the charger to his Nintendo DS and your hockey player forgot his/her jerseys which put you way behind. Sound familiar? Anyway, you got your coffee and now you start chit chatting with the other team parents who are waaaaay too chipper for this early in the morning. Then the team manager strolls up, looking for volunteers. She starts passing out assignments like a fifth grade teacher and you duck behind the bleachers while trying not to make eye contact, but it's too late.
This is a pivotal moment. Penalty box was the first thing to go and she's already suckered someone else into running the clock. You can roll the dice and hope she doesn't ask you to keep the score sheet or you can take the bull by the horns and volunteer to do the music.
You choose the music. Good choice.
After all, you have good taste in music, so why not. Plus last week, that goalie dad was playing Jack Johnson, deep cuts from Little Richard's first album, and were those Pac-Man sound affects? Yeah - you got this. Happy that you didn't allow fate to stick you with score sheet duty, you saunter over to the scorer's booth like you're Pitbull at the AMA's and plug your phone into the sound system. After running a few sound checks and picking out a few songs, you're already picturing how the mom's are going to be dancing in the stands and even Grandpa will be raising the roof. Coach may even give you the game puck.
The team takes the ice and you choose "Kick Start My Heart" by Motley Crue as the entrance song. Maybe a little cliched but still awesome and your spouse just gave you a thumbs up. The whole first period flies by and you completely rocked it. But man, there were a lot of faceoff's and holy crap, you're almost to the end of your iTunes playlist. Luckily there were no goals scored because you don't really have a goal song picked out.
The second period starts and you accidentally hit "Thong Song" by Sisqo. Why is that even on your play list? That's okay because you recover at the next face off with "Warrior" by Disturbed. Well done.
Oh yeah, you're back...except your team just scored and where was that goal song?
Uh oh. "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus was not the right choice. Now your spouse is giving you the cutoff sign but to cut the song off in mid-play is to admit you were wrong. So you let it go. Frantically you look for a face-off song but you end up playing "Thong Song" again! This is where the game unravels.
What follows is a hit-and-miss musical effort akin to an eighth grade dance. The players smack the glass and stare you down every time they skate by the scorers booth and ever since you played the theme to Golden Girls for the power play, Coach has been shaking his head. You've just gone from getting the game puck to excommunication.
Well, Hoosier Hockey Faithful, the good news is this was just a dramatization - a glimpse of a hockey future that could be. Lucky for you, we're here to help with our INHockey.net Ultimate Game Day Music playlist on Spotify. We've made sure to include a goal horn, a few old stand-bys, and a couple of epic songs you may have never heard of. And yes, we included Chelsea Dagger but even us Hawks fans have to take a break sometime so go easy on the Fratelli's. We also made sure that most of the playlist is family friendly with exception of one or two songs.
Have a look and a listen, make sure to follow and share, and let us know if we missed your favorite hockey song in the comments section below.
INHockey.net Readers are also checking out these articles:
All Black Hockey Sticks Final Review
- By Jeremy Kuntz 05/01/2017, 12:30pm EDT
INHockey INSider: Coach Jack Manard
- By Jeremy Kuntz 05/22/2017, 5:30pm EDT
Game of the Week!
- By Jeremy Kuntz 11/30/2017, 1:30am EST
