Sibling Rivalry - The Rebels At Play In the Sport of Lords

by John Davis Collins.....© 2000 by John F. Clennan, Esq., All Rights Reserved

Old Church at New Village

Sweet Jenny McCrae ! Eastern Long Island has few traces left of the loyalist ascendancy outside of plain white clapboard church buildings, where dissenters dissented from dissension, but its hidden Tory past has had a resurgence in the royal sport of youth hockey. In the "out-east", the regal past time threatens to supplant the republican one.

Long Island Congregationalism spun off the Congregationalist faith of New England. In 1664 Long Island was made part of the Royal crown colony of New York. Unlike their cousins to the north, Long Island Congregationalists adhered to the Tory cause.

Double Trouble

Wouldn't you know this would happen in some place called King's Park?

Jennifer and Louis arrive for the game. Jennifer says her brothers don't question her motives in playing hockey....they don't dare.

Perhaps sibling rivalry in the clash of Yankee and Loyalist cultures is more deeply felt than on Doug Cayea's Red Coats, a team of pre-teenage rascals who boast of the fraternal rhubarb in their midst between Jennifer and Louie, brother and sister on and off the ice.

Jennifer age 11 followed her two older brothers Chris 13 and Louie 12 onto the ice. Nicknamed the tigress of the Red Coat's zone, Jennifer, a defense person, asks for no special privileges and gives none either - assisting in the defense of the goal and advancement of the puck on the rebound.

Coach Doug Cayea reminds troops to keep stiff upper lip.

(The Toronto born coach says "LI parents need shopping lessons in purchasing hockey equipment. They spend far too much. It's the fit not the expense that matters.")

Neither does coach Doug Cayea. The Toronto born coach claims to have come to America at age 5, fluent in both French and English. "Today, I can't speech neither, the coach joshes. There is more to being a coach than a booming voice and a whistle. Doug keeps up his skills by playing semi-pro hockey for Keystone in the Industrial League.

Louie, Jennifer's brother, is a forward and leads the team in shots on goal.

Red Zone. Red coats prepare to defend goal against blue coated travel players

Tough players are a premium in the league that the Red Coats find themselves in. A drafted team competing with travel squads summering in division, the lads and lasses of American hockey often times have to keep a stiff upper lip.

Will fans one day be whistling Jenny in a major sports arena?

Spectator's reactions are polite but not promising. Most admit they wouldn't want a daughter out skating the boys.

Not to fear say the ladies of Long Island Liberty, a local women's semi professional team with patriotic pretensions. When Jennifer turns 18, she will be able to try-out for their team.

Rivals on the ice; friends afterwards. Even in the American version of the sport there are bruised knees and egos but that must end with the handshake.

Does the game go home with Jen and Louie? No says their mother. After the handshake, the battle is just begun.

Training Camp

Jennifer like most other young athletes stated out in one of the clinics sponcered by the rink. This one to the left is hosted by Superior Rink's pros Keith McAdams and Rich McGuigan.