Hockey helps restore “normalcy”after attack

MAITLAND, FLA – Last Sunday, the Central Florida High School Hockey League held its championship game for the 2015-16 season. The game pitted the Jacksonville Jets against the Brevard County Rockets with the winners taking home the Solar Bears Cup. For the record, Jacksonville won the game 12-2 but the contest became something more than that.

It became a symbol of normal.

Fourteen hours prior to the opening face-off, a gunman entered the Pulse nightclub – a well-know gay club that on this particular night was hosting a Latino night – and began firing on the more than 300 patrons, entertainers and staff who were enjoying themselves. By the time law enforcement was able to breach the building, 49 innocent people had lost their lives and more than 50 more were injured, some seriously. Police were able to kill the gunman and at present the investigation into the attack is still ongoing.

Orlando, like many urban areas, is no stranger to gun violence. This attack, however, was something more. With 49 deaths, it is now the largest mass shooting incident in the United States at least since 1982 – a frightening factoid considering that up until now, the city and metro area were known as “the happiest place on Earth” thanks to the theme parks at Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld along with the nearby beaches and many more attractions.

Experts believe that one of the theories behind such acts of terrorism is an attempt to disrupt the normal way of life. Those same experts say that the best way of not “letting the terrorists win” is to continue to do things like always which in a way proves that life does in fact go on. It is a common belief shared by many.

“What terrorists want to do more than anything else is to disrupt the American way of life, disrupt our freedoms, to instill fear in us. If we become fearful of them, they’ve succeeded,” Paco Lopez, public address announcer for the Orlando Solar Bears and the Orlando City Soccer men’s and Orlando Pride women’s pro teams said. “The biggest thing we can do is to continue to live our lives the way we would regardless.”

So it was on Sunday when the Jacksonville and Brevard County teams, their fans and a television crew from Bright House Sports Network arrived at the RDV Sportsplex Ice Den in Maitland intent on going on with the game. BHSN was there to do a live broadcast of the game to Bright House subscribers in the Central Florida and Tampa Bay regions.

It was a broadcast that almost did not happen.

“It was not a normal day. Nobody [on the crew] wanted to do this game. Our higher-ups decided we really should do it,” BHSN senior producer Scott Engles said about the broadcast. “After the initial shock of everything that happened, we started focusing on producing this game.”

Shock was a very appropriate description for locals. BHSN color commentator Bill Shafer, who for many years worked for WESH-TV in Orlando before becoming part of the creative team for the “Growing Bolder” media group, was among those trying to make sense of it all.

Chris Torello (left) and Bill Shafer calling the game on Bright House Sports Network

“It opened our eyes to a nightmare that we never ever really thought would come as close as it has to our area,” he said. “You can’t comprehend the level of devastation and the harm it does – not just physical harm but the harm in the minds of each one of us that somebody is capable of this and that it is possible for it to happen here. We were all looking at each other going ‘is the game going to go on, is the broadcast going to go on’ but it is about being who we are.”

For the teams heading to Maitland, especially the families with players, the drive was certainly not normal. Jonathan Meyer and his son Alan saw the news reports before heading on the drive down from Jacksonville. During the drive, the conversation between father and son was more about the horrific events than the game.

“[It was] mostly just confusion. I was trying to help him understand or explain how something like that could even happen,” Jonathan Meyer said. “There is no explanation for it, there’s no understanding why it would happen. That’s what we talked about.”

Once the game itself began, everyone was immersed in the play on the ice. Mitzi Barrall, who came over from Rockledge to watch grandson James Barrall play for the Brevard County team, viewed the game as a way to move forward.

“I think everybody has to remember those people for their suffering and what has happened but we all have to keep moving forward with our everyday life and not let this get to us to the point that we stop living our lives,” she said. “We reflect on it and we learn from it and keep moving forward.”

With every hit, shot, save and goal, everyone was able to leave the horrors of the night before behind if only for a little while, once again proving sports’ role in the healing process.

“Sports is a place where everybody can escape,” Orlando Solar Bears assistant coach John Snowden – who was there to present the championship trophy – said. “You can walk away from things for a little bit and watch something you enjoy and it makes you happy for the time that you can.”