The Dread Pirates are a crew of hockey crazy adult women living in the general vicinity of Madison, Wisconsin. Nearly all of us started playing hockey as adults, many in their 30’s and 40’s. Most of us had only recreational ice skating experience (rent some skates once every few years and wobble around the rink clinging to the boards for a bit) before starting hockey. Many of us didn’t even know the rules before we started playing. It’s ok, that’s why we practice with coaches and have teammates to help us along the way. We love brand new skaters!
We LOVE hockey – it is a passion. Hockey is as necessary as breathing. And it’s the most fun thing – ever. We take our fun pretty seriously, and we work really hard to get better at hockey. But we also laugh a LOT. Mostly at ourselves. The first article of the Dread Pirate code is HAVE FUN!
We are the team that doesn’t care about winning. Our crew is out there to have fun and get better at hockey. Each one of us competes only with yesterday’s version of ourselves. Every time we get off the ice, we ask the question, “Did I get a little better at a specific skill than the last time I was out there?” Or perhaps “Did I learn that I need to acquire a new skill?” And “Did I have fun?” If the answer is yes, that’s a win.
Pirates don’t care what the scoreboard says. Have you ever seen a team “lose” by a wide margin according to the scoreboard, head to the locker room with smiles on their faces, and declare “That was a great game?” We have! In our locker room, Pirates celebrate successes, big and small, and the progress we see in our teammates. Should we happen to score more goals than the other team, then we will raise our tankards in victory just the same. We even get excited when we see progress in our opponents. We have played with or against these teams for years and look forward to many more years together. A beautiful goal, a difficult save, or sweet move are all worthy of celebration regardless of the jersey the player wears.
As it happens, each one of us is also pretty nerdy about something. We are the Dread Pirates after all, what did you expect?
Have fun storming the castle!