If you’ve ever had the chance to talk to a professional hockey player in a less formal setting, you know that all players have about a million stories about their careers that they love to tell. Minor league hockey players always seem to have more of the crazier stories since there are fewer cameras and eyeballs on them, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add another great book to the library that is all about one man’s hockey experiences. Teebz’s Book Club is proud to write a review Stories from the bus competitionswritten and edited by Jamie McKinven. This book contains one hundred stories from Jamie’s life where hockey was his only concern as he played in the NCAA, the ECHL, the CHL, and in Europe over the course of his career, and the end result is a book where I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough when it came to reading about these stops in his career!
Jamie McKinven’s biography comes from his Queen’s University page where he serves as the assistant coach of women’s hockey! That biography reads: Jamie is in his 9th season as an assistant coach with the team, where he specializes in working primarily with the defense and in defensive systems and tactics, in addition to individual skill development and data/analytics. A native of Kingston, Ontario, McKinven played NCAA Division I hockey at Clarkson University and earned the Fran Narigan Award for Excellence in Academics, Athletics and Humanitarianism in his senior year. After his collegiate career, he played professionally in the ECHL, Central Hockey League and Europe. Afterwards During his playing career, McKinven served as an assistant coach and director of player development for the Kingston Voyageurs Jr. A Hockey Club and as a skills development specialist at FL Sports Inc. and McKinven Hockey Development & Consulting. It should also be noted that he has written three books on hockey, including: Stories from the bus competitions!Stories from the bus competitions takes you through the career of Jamie McKinven, starting in junior hockey in Ottawa to his college days in Potsdam, New York, to playing in hockey hotbeds like Shreveport, Amarillo, Augusta and more! McKinven’s experiences are documented along the way, recording the lessons he learned in and around the game, tricks and experiences, teammates who made his career unforgettable, and some of the more memorable events and people who made him Stories from the bus competitions funny and fun to read!
You might be wondering who McKinven played with, or against, you know, and there were some notable names that skated in the competitions that he did. Former NHL defenseman Grant Clitsome is the victim of a McKinven joke in one story, former NHL center Craig Conroy rewards McKinven and his teammates for their hockey skills, and former NHL forward David Desharnais was once an opponent. McKinven tells the story of Mike Sgroi, perhaps the scariest man on skates, and he talks about battling the much bigger Joel Irving, a Montreal Canadiens prospect. Despite all this, McKinven provides a humorous look at his career Stories from the bus competitions.
What gripped me Stories from the bus competitions Early on, McKinven’s experience was in Serbia. During his time there, the former Yugoslavia had fallen apart and everywhere in Belgrade where he played there were still remnants of the war. Rather than focusing on the conditions in and around Belgrade, McKinven spoke of the culture and people with very high regard. He writes,
“Given that Serbs have lived with the constant presence of war and conflict for centuries, it makes perfect sense that they would be extremely proud people. Family, religion and deeply held cultural values have guided Serbs through their darkest days. It is the foundation of their perseverance, something that we as Canadians were lax and somewhat absent in. It was not that we did not appreciate the importance of these values. It was more that we never had to rely on them to survive.”
That’s a profound statement from a man who was there to play hockey, but his experiences there and the teammates he befriended in Belgrade were a reminder that he was a stranger in a strange land. I appreciate his cultural perspective on his time in Serbia, and I’m glad he wrote about it so clearly, honestly, and transparently.There are all kinds of hilarious and entertaining stories in it Stories from the bus competitions including McKinven’s experiences as a hockey player at The Masters, life as a college student-athlete, bus trips on two different continents, meetings with coaches and a stack of other stories that emerged from his career in the minor leagues. While some may be childish in nature, they are all part of Jamie McKinven’s experience as a professional minor league hockey player!
General, Stories from the bus competitions is a fun read that should raise a smile at some of the stories thanks to the craziness that McKinven and his teammates indulge in. McKinven makes it clear that anyone who plays minor league hockey isn’t playing for the money, and this is a lesson repeated in a number of stories. What we shouldn’t forget, however, is that McKinven has had a lifetime of experiences doing what he loved, and it’s easy to Stories from the bus competitions the Teebz’s Book Club Seal of Approval!
Stories from the bus competitions was released in 2015, so you can probably find it on library shelves now. I read the eBook version linked above, and it was easy to get into the book because it’s funny, has short stories that are a few pages long at most, and is all about hockey. McKinven’s stories occasionally contain some strong language, so it would be a must-read for older teens and adult hockey fans. However, Stories from the bus competitions is an excellent and fun read with great hockey stories, and it comes highly recommended!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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