Hockey Short Stories/ One Shots

Watching my boyfriend of a year and a half lift the Calder Cup after everything that has come his way and the struggles that he has been through during his life time, tears spring to my eyes. I am so unbelievably proud of Rich and all that he has done for himself and his team. I have known Rich since we were both 16 years old and over the years, our love for each other strengthened and finally after 12 years of being friends, we both confessed our love for each other.

I have always been there for Rich, especially during his battle with addiction. Through out his career he has felt a tremendous amount of pressure, and continually for years he couldn’t cope with it and turned to alcohol and drugs. We met in Sarnia at a bar, Rich was very intoxicated and at the end of the night I had helped him get home safe. That was the start of our friendship. Countless nights of his 3 years in Sarnia, he would call me drunk or high and I would go to pick him up and take him home. Many of my friends never understood why I kept doing it for him, they didn’t understand what he was going through. But I never left him, I couldn’t do it to myself. I owed it to him and myself to make sure he was safe.

I followed him from place to place, all over Canada and the US for 9 years and continued to help him. I don’t think anyone understood why I did it for him, probably himself included. And somedays when he would blow up on me, I even questioned myself. There was really no other answer than just I couldn’t do it. I have loved Rich since I was 16 years old, for almost half of my lifetime.

I can’t put Rich’s story into words so I suggest that you read his player’s tribune article ( https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/rich-clune-hockey-nhl ). Its hard to read but something that I am glad and proud that Rich wrote. It helped a lot of people and himself included. He was the only one that could truly put his story into words.

In the 7 years or so that Rich has been sober, I have went to school for nursing and then back to school to be an addictions therapist. Lately, with the help of Rich I have been able to get into the sports addictions therapist and it has opened me up to many more opportunities to work with athletes that are battling this.From when I was young all I wanted to do was help people and now I am doing something that I had only imagined could happen.

Learning the other part of Rich, the intelligent, art and movie lover, have made me fall in more love with him. I don’t want to say that I have loved Rich at his worst and now at his best, because I don’t consider his addiction his ‘worst.’ The quote ‘grow through what you go through’ is something that is tattooed onto me and relates to Rich is many ways.

So to see him after all he has went through, to be on the Toronto Marlies and contribute to this Calder Cup Championship is something that is so deserved. The Marlies have given him a chance to play the sport he loves on a team that is so special to him. He has played such a large role in this team and the building of the organization towards this point. This was shown in Rich being the first one to hold the trophy after the captain.

Soon enough all of the players’ families were being allowed on to the ice to see our players. I followed Rich’s parents and two brothers to where he was and let Rich have a special moment with his family first, watching them embrace with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face.

Rich and I made eye contact for the first time and he smiles so wide. “Stop cryinggg” he groans as he wraps his arms around me lifting me up lightly.

“Congrats you fool” I laugh. Rich puts me down and lightly pecks me on the lips.

His family and I make a semi circle around him, Rich’s dad is talking about how well the game went and the refs missed calls. Rich’s mom attempting to shush her husband about the game and telling Rich to go celebrate with his teammates.

“I’m going to get the trophy soon, so we can take a picture,” Rich informs his family before a reporter comes up with his camera crew for an interview. We all stand in the back while Rich is getting his interview, and then the reporter begins to ask Rich’s parents about the win. Rich’s mom gets teary eyed talking about it, making me cry once again.

The interviewer even asks Rich’s brothers questions before turning to me. Quickly I wipe tears as she speaks, “Clearly, you seem very emotional about the win. What does this win mean to you?”

“Well its very special to me, I’m very proud of Rich and I know that he has had a big part of the reason the team has evolved over the years and been able to turn into a championship winning team. And after all the adversity he has gone through, I just think he is so deserving of this and I’m just really happy for him” I manage to get out while tears stream down my face.

Rich is laughing at me and comes over to squeeze me. “I love you bub,” He whispers in my ear.

Notes

not my usual length of writing AT ALL, but whatever. I didn't want to go into that much detail of his past because its not mine and I don't have the whole story, I did some research and his players tribune article was very helpful and informative so I suggest you guys read it!!

anyways you guys should follow my tumblr i'm posting on there, its hockeyisreligion

thanks for reading!!!