Ben moves for friendship
“It’s fun and I get to make good friends.”
Ben McKenzie started playing hockey at four. For him, the game is about speed, goals, teammates, cheering from the bench, and the friends he makes along the way.
Ben McKenzie started playing hockey when he was four.
His dad first took him to skating lessons and told him that playing hockey would be fun. Ben agreed.
“It’s fun and I get to make good friends,” he says.
Practices are harder and longer than games, but games are where the fun really comes alive.
“Games are more fun,” Ben says. “We get to sing and cheer on the bench.”
One of his favourite parts of hockey happens before and after the game too: being with his friends in the dressing room. For Ben, the team is part of what makes the sport matter.
The best part of being on a team is simple.
“Making friends,” he says.
He also has a favourite memory tied to scoring.
“Getting a chocolate milkshake from my Dad whenever I score a goal!” Ben says.
Ben does not only move through hockey. He also takes swimming lessons and goes skiing. But hockey brings together many things he loves: speed, games, friends, goals, and that feeling of being part of a team.
Losing is his least favourite part, but even that belongs to the rhythm of the game. Hockey keeps asking him to skate, try, cheer, and come back.
Ben moves for friendship.