Never Too Late To Learn The Game

Onto the ice come about 25 hockey players.

Some skate tentatively, using their sticks and the dasherboards at the Clinton Arena for balance.

Others dig their blades into the newly treated ice and push hard for the far end of the rink.

A minute or so into the practice, everyone has scooped up a puck on the end of their sticks, concentrating on controlling the disc as they skate in larger circles.

Five minutes in, coaches John Forbes and Rick Maxam whistle that the warmup is done.

The coaches begin to explain the drills the group will work on that practice. It’s 9:30 on a Wednesday night.

It’s the only ice time that a group of beginning hockey players can get at the arena.

Forbes, with Clinton Central School hockey teammate Maxam, teaches an eight-week course on learning to play hockey.

On the ice are parents, grandparents and people who have played other sports, or not played anything in decades.

All of them are answering some desire they have to learn to play hockey. Forbes played for Hamilton College after prep school.

This is his fifth year running the Mohawk Valley’s Full Stride Adult Hockey Program.

Many of the skaters this session are taking it for at least the second time to improve their skills as skaters and players in recreation leagues.

Forbes has coached from youth groups on up.

“Hockey has always played a huge part of my life,’’ said Forbes, who is ...