Jon Hyslop is having more fun playing hockey now, at 81, than he ever has.
Growing up in Windsor, Ont., he spent much of his winters playing shinny on frozen tennis courts. His aspirations to play professionally died early, but his love for playing the game never did.
This month, Hyslop became one of the first players to compete on a team composed entirely of athletes over 80 at the Ontario 55+ Winter Games, a tournament hosted by the Ontario Senior Games Association.
“We got a great bunch of guys,” Hyslop, a forward on the team, said of his teammates.
Held every other year, the winter tournament brings together around 1,000 athletes from across Ontario to compete in sports ranging from alpine skiing to curling to badminton. The association also runs recreational summer sports and card games for Ontarians over 55.
This is the first winter games with a hockey team made up entirely of people in their 80s.
“We’re breaking new ground,” said teammate John Hayton, 81, who organized the team. “We’re first of a kind.”
Hayton named the team heading to the winter games the London Waryears. It sounds like “warriors,” but is really a nod to the fact that all its players were born during the Second World War.
‘Unique’ leagues
This year’s winter games, from Feb. 3 to 5, are held in Huntsville, Ont.
Most events are divided into age groups, with divisions for those 55 and older, 65 and older and, for some events, 75 and older.
Hayton recruited 15 other octogenarian skaters and a goalie to his team, which will compete in the 75 and over tier.
In an interview before the tournament started, Hayton said he was not worried about his team’s chances. After all, the players are all used to playing against younger players in their city league, London Senior Hockey. The league, founded in 1985, currently boasts 24 teams, divided into divisions based on players’ skill. Games are 90 minutes long, with no intermissions.
The games are no-contact, and first responders attend every game in case of emergencies; players are also required to obey orders to go to the hospital, says Hayton.
Teams suit up three times a week.
“We play as many games as an NHL team does,” said Hayton, who is in his 27th year in the league.
Hayton hopes competing at the winter games helps others learn about the London seniors league.
“My main hope was that our hockey league would get the exposure that it deserves,” he said. “It really is unique.”
Team motivation
Associations such as the Ontario Senior Games Association and London Senior Hockey league do not just provide players with an opportunity to stay fit. They also provide a way for players to create and maintain friendships.
For many seniors, it is not easy to do either.
A recent survey from the National Institute of Ageing found that only a third of Canadians over 50 attended weekly social or recreational activities.
Physical activity, particularly team sports, can be crucial to maintaining physical, cognitive and emotional health, says Steve Di Ciacca, program manager for the Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging at Western University in London.
“As we age, we start to lose friends, family,” he said. “We’re at a different stage of life, so we start to be at jeopardy of being isolated. And with isolation comes a lot of increase in cognitive decline and loneliness and depression, and an effect on mental health.”
Hyslop knows the benefits of these friendships well.
He joined London Senior Hockey shortly after he retired from selling tools when he was 65. His retirement years have seen considerable loss: the deaths of his oldest daughter and wife; his diagnosis with Parkinson’s.
“I don’t let it affect me,” he said of the disease. He played many sports growing up. When he would get discouraged by his diagnosis, his late wife would remind him he was an athlete, that he could keep trying.
She may not be here to motivate him anymore, but his teammates do.
“I do exercises at home and I get bored,” he said of the stretches he does to maintain his strength. “That’s just no fun by yourself doing that.”
But if he does not do them, he will not skate as well. And if he cannot skate, he cannot play hockey. And without hockey, he will spend less time with friends.
He tried to keep the news of his diagnosis quiet. It did not work. Cold air makes his tremors stronger, and that makes it hard for him to keep his hockey stick still while sitting on the bench. His teammates steady it for him.
Inclusive communities
Seniors’ hockey leagues often have players who are developing disabilities as they age, says Kristi Allain, a sociology professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B., who studies seniors’ hockey leagues. Accepting players’ disabilities is routine in these leagues.
“A lot of that competitiveness of youth school hockey and competitive hockey is stripped away,” she said.
“What’s left is a deep respect for one another and a culture that really values spending time together, that values inclusivity, moving their bodies and experiencing a kind of joyfulness.”
When Canadians think of hockey heroes, they should picture senior players who help everyone play and prioritize camaraderie, she says.
“This is the kind of hockey community that I think Canada, when it imagines itself as a hockey playing nation, wants to imagine for itself.”
That’s the attitude Brian Laporte had when he was asked to coach the London Waryears at this year’s winter games.
The key to coaching senior athletes is to get out of the way and let them play, Laporte, 72, said in an interview before the tournament.
He did not expect to teach the players anything they did not already know.
“They’re old dogs,” says Laporte, who is the president of London Senior Hockey. “I can’t teach an old dog new stuff.”
Perhaps. But the tournament held at least one new experience for Hyslop. Years ago, he drove his son Brad to hockey tournaments throughout Ontario. But for this tournament, Brad drove him.
“It’s about time,” Hyslop said.
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