Category: Story

It’s Been a Long Journey!

by Piradeepan Uthayakumar

The Richmond Cosom Floor Hockey Association (RCFHA) currently has a coed children’s league and a recently formed Adult division, where most of those children who grew up continue to play in today. But this is not how RCFHA started off – in fact RCFHA was not even named “RCFHA”. Here is the story about how RCFHA has evolved into the Association that it is today.

One of the original all girls team

Originally, the Association started off as a purely girls league, named The Richmond Girls Cosom Hockey Association. The motivation for this Association was to create a sporting league for girls playing softball to keep active during their off-season. The Association was created in the late 1970’s, and two of the main purposes outlined in the Constitution at the time were to “…provide athletic recreation… and regulate competitions”, as well as “…promote the ideals of good sportsmanship, honesty, loyalty, and respect…”. These ideals that the Association was created upon have been the fundamental concepts that have kept the Association alive to this day.

Soon after, boys divisions were included in the Association in the late 80’s, and Cosom Hockey began to become popular amongst the boys. At this point, the Association consisted of separate boys and girls divisions. Although operating as both a boys and girls league, it wasn’t until 2002, that it had been decided to formalize the change to our current name – Richmond Cosom Floor Hockey Association.

Slowly, the number of girls playing in our Divisions diminished until it was no longer viable to continue with separating the girls and boys, and so in 2016, our divisions had become coed. To this day, we still have a number of girls playing across our divisions, but we hope to bring these numbers back up. In addition, our Adult division was started at the same time, in order to allow recently graduated players to continue playing on through their adulthood. This division is one of our most popular, and has increased in numbers year over year.

Today, we are at a point where our coed divisions and Adult division are going strong. Our updated rules, new technology, and new equipment have also brought us forward to the 21st century, and have attracted new participants and kept many of our returning players coming back.

We hope that we can bring up more interest in Cosom Floor Hockey with not just the girls, but everyone, so that one day, we can return to offering more divisions to play in. If you know of anyone who may be interested, or even someone who wants to start getting active, please recommend our sport. It can be a great starting point, or even an additional way to stay active in other sports’ off seasons.

Some of our future stories will also include the changes and advances we have made in the game of Cosom Floor Hockey. We hope that this will keep you interested in RCFHA, and hope that our new advances will attract new and different folks to try out our sport.

Stay tuned for updates on our plans for registration!

Do you have a story about the history with RCFHA? Send them to share (with photos too if you have them) to webmaster@rcfha.org

Stay safe, stay fit, and stay tuned!

Happy Canada Day!

Today we celebrate the 153rd birthday of our nation of Canada. And what’s more Canadian than hockey!

But do you know, when and where hockey came from? Actually hockey’s origins are indeterminate. Indeed, the very definition of the game is at debate. Some observers accept as hockey any pastime where participants on skates use a club, or other wooden implement, to knock a ball or some such propellant about. Others say an activity cannot be recognized as hockey unless it is a contest between teams and conducted under an accepted set of rules.

The earliest recorded reference, according to the Canadian Museum of Civilization, is in the journal of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, where he notes that “on October 25, 1825, men from his party skated and played hockey on Great Bear Lake.”

The International Ice Hockey Federation has endorsed a longstanding Montréal claim. It is based on documented evidence, in newspapers, of a specific game between two teams of identified members and a recorded score. The match was played at the city’s Victoria Rink on March 3, 1875. No earlier descriptions of an actual game of hockey with a recorded score have ever been found. It ended, incidentally, in a brawl!

Regardless of it’s origin, there is no dispute Canada has made hockey it’s national game. Just about every boy and girl have dreams about being the next Gretzky or Wickenheiser. Does you kid have what it takes? Not sure if you’d want to make the full commitment? Or you simply just want to child to have fun playing the Canadian game? Why not try out cosom floor hockey! It’s less demanding, focus more on fun, yet the skills you learn can help you lay some solid foundations for any other levels of hockey! Richmond Cosom Floor Hockey Association, run by volunteers, with parents and players just like you, is fully committed to putting together a program that will be engaging, fun and enjoyable for all ages! Even in light of the current COVID-19 situation, just like any other professional sports, we are still committed to put together an exciting season.

Registration for the 2020/21 season will be opening in September. Watch this space and don’t miss it! You can contact president@rchfa.org if you have any questions.

Stay safe, stay fit, and stay tuned!

Move it!

From the spectator stand on stage at the gym came the shouts, “move it! MOVE IT!” That might be the picture you would have of the over zealous parent egging their kids on at the game. You might think, “hey buddy, that’s just a game!” That’s what I’ve always thought too…until my son got involved in the Richmond Cosom Floor Hockey Association!

My older son, Evann, started to get involve when he was in grade 2 in the Mites. We thought it might be a better way for him to spend his time instead of being in front of a screen. He was a small boy for his age so tend to be out powered to the larger kids. What’s more, when he first started with game, he didn’t seem to have any idea or sense of going after the puck. He’d just seem to be standing around, waiting for the puck to come to him! So as he played more games and his team wasn’t doing as well, I might get a little over zealous and just want him to just move around! That first season, I think his team lost almost every game! But of course, that never phased him and we thought he is learning. Learning to be a team player, learning new skills, learning to win and (mostly) to loose gracefully. And most importantly, how to have FUN!

It all started somewhere…

That first season was actually tough in other ways. We were still living in Vancouver while our boys were going to Richmond Christian. On practice nights, it was impractical to go home after school and then come back out for practice and we ended up eating at the local food courts at least once a week. But we stuck with it for another season. We eventually did move to Richmond which made things easier, and we kept at it year after year. That first season was 2011, and now, almost ten years later, we are still at it! It’s like when you find a good thing, you aren’t going to let it go!

…and how fast they grow!

Evann has certainly grown as a player, from the first season where he didn’t seem to know where he was, to the last season where he was among some of the top league players, and even starting to learn to ref, as many of his peers are learning to do. We must credit his growth to the countless volunteer coaches he had over the years. For their dedication to the game, and never let “what is” get in the way of “what could be”. And most of all, allowing the kids to have fun!

Well, this coming season promises to be a little different than the past, but we are still looking forward to getting our boys off the screen and on the gym!

Do you have a story about how you or your kids benefited from playing cosom hockey? Send them (with photos too) to webmaster@rcfha.org

Stay safe, stay fit, and stay tuned!