Twenty years ago when Jeff Solomon moved from Montreal to Nanaimo, he began looking for a way to get involved, to make a difference. It didn’t take long for him to find his answer … ball hockey.

Jeff had fond memories of playing road hockey as a kid back East. All that was needed was a road, an old tennis ball, a couple of garbage cans for goal posts and some kind of hockey stick. (Your poor but honest scribe, who is a little longer in the tooth than Jeff, is old enough to remember playing on the frozen streets in Ottawa South using blocks of ice as goal posts and, more than once, having to use frozen horse balls for a puck … Oh the memories.)

Wanting to be a little more organized than most pick up road hockey games, Jeff approached Bill France at Nanaimo’s Parks and Recreation Department and soon a “drop in” ball hockey program sprouted up.

Eight years later, after taking a few years off to launch his family, Jeff was back in the ball hockey business. He and Barb _________ teamed up to run a noon hour program for Georgia Avenue students but then, after a couple of years, the gym became unavailable at noon so the program moved to Thursday and Friday evenings.

The various evening leagues for different age groups soon became so popular that kids and their parents were coming from both north and south to play so, given the demand, leagues were soon started at Chase River, Uplands Park, Cinebar and Departure Bay and now more than 400 kids are playing in the Nanaimo Ball Hockey League.

After organizing the Georgia league for 12 years, Jeff stepped down last year and left the organizing to others. Isn’t it amazing how one person can start a small snowball rolling down hill and turn it into a giant one?

Jeff chose ball hockey because it’s an inexpensive sport to organize. For $20 a year kids get to play all season in an organized league with good coaches and referees (many of whom played in the league themselves as kids). At the end of the year each player gets a medal and other recognitions at their annual banquet. To save money none of the kids get team sweaters. Instead each team plays with hockey sticks of the same colour and, since they always play at their own neighbourhood school, they can walk to the gym. That’s how prices are kept so low.

It’s a relatively small percentage of kids whose parents can afford to suit them up to play ice hockey, Jeff says, but almost every family can afford to have their kids get a piece of our national pastime by playing ball hockey where they also learn about the importance of teamwork and good sportsmanship. Jeff also says that through the ball hockey program, kids get to know a wide range of other kids from their neighbourhood and because they know each other better they are less likely to have squabbles in the playground during and after school.

After twenty years, Jeff’s favourite ball hockey memory is the time his son, Mathew, a special needs student, scored his one and only goal on a penalty shot, a shot where the goalie made a big “mistake” and let the goal in. Apparently Mathew still talks about that goal eight years later.

I wonder if that goal tender realizes what a big difference he made that night. The truth is that most Hidden Heroes never learn about the differences they have made. They just consistently do the right thing like the goalie did that one evening and like Jeff has done for twenty years.