Interview with HFC Captain, Luke Hickey

Houston Floorball Club one of the first to register for the 2015 US Nationals!
Below, see an interview with HFC Captain, Luke Hickey

Name:  Luke Hickey
Position?  Center
Role in HFC?  Communications director

USA Floorball: How were you first introduced to floorball and how long have you been playing?
Luke: I found floorball when I moved to Austin in 2008 when the Hill Country Outdoors club had a visit there. I grew up playing roller hockey but hadn't held a stick in a while. After playing (and let's face it, stick checking the heck out of everybody) for only 30 minutes, I knew it was for me.

USA Floorball: The Houston Floorball Club was recently featured on the USA Floorball website. How is the club preparing for the 2015 Nationals in Round Rock?
Luke: This summer we've been holding a kids' camp then having drills and pickup afterwards. I think the drills are useful to refine skills and get muscle memory for new plays we can use in a real game. We've also been discussing having some friendly games versus the club in Austin in the weeks prior to the championship. Playing against new and skilled players produces a more competitive atmosphere than playing against your friends every week. It's also an opportunity to probe a contending team for weaknesses, like Bobby Nodea.

USA Floorball: Being one of the first teams to register, does that affect your preparations at all?
Luke: Time goes fast. The biggest obstacle is getting players to confirm they'll be there and then pay the team fee. (Hey, HFC Nationals players, if you're reading this you owe me fifty bucks!) Once we know who's going to play we can go about drafting lines. The most difficult thing to prepare is the discipline it requires to avoid penalties and encourage your opponents to take them.

USA Floorball: What do you see as HFC's greatest strength going into this tournament?
Luke: To be blunt, Houston is blessed to have very experienced and talented players from floorball hotbeds in Europe. Our homegrown contingent is likewise improving their innedbandy acumen as well. Having veteran steady heads to guide the limber legs of youth is a combination not to be underrated. Also, we got some plain old shooters, I tell ya. If the ball doesn't go in the goal, a defender is sure to have a dimpled red welt they'll not soon forget, nor desire to replicate. We have a pair of outstanding (and kneeling and lunging) goalies as well.

USA Floorball: Any significant challenges?
Luke: As before, getting players to confirm is really the hardest part.  But if we started planning 6 months ago I don't know if it'd be that different now. A captain also faces the obstacle of emotionally preparing players for bad calls. Yes, sometimes it will seem wrong. No, there is nothing you can do about it. It's hard to take that zen approach, especially with the infamous Texas Attitude.  To paraphrase the great Phil Jackson: "There's more to life than floorball.  But there's also more to floorball than floorball."

USA Floorball: What will be your team's keys to a successful tournament?
Luke: Everybody stretched, hydrated, carbohydrated, not hungover, and ready to play Saturday morning (it's the weekend in a fun town, whaddayagonnado?). Consistent, concise, and clear communication during the game is absolutely critical. If we can pass more than we shoot, and run less than we pass I think we'll have a positive result. Playing as a team sounds easy but takes regular practice and constant mindfulness. Only one team can win the whole thing, but everyone can leave with good memories. It'd be nice to have a medal to go with those memories though…

USA Floorball: What are your favorite things to do/see/eat in Austin?
Luke: Oh you mean besides floorball?  Well it's hot in Austin, and there's no better way to make the most of the temperature than a dip in refreshing water. I like going to Lake Travis, or Barton Springs Pool, or a friendly Austin resident's sprinkler to cool off and relax. A walk around Town Lake makes for some excellent people watching as well. Austin is also the Live Music Capital of the World. To my knowledge, that declaration has not been peer-reviewed.  Nonetheless you can catch a band in any genre, at any development level, almost any night in Austin. I like beer, too. *POP* Did you hear that sound? That was the brewery bubble popping! Tour and taste them all while you still can, run! As far as eating goes, the best tacos or bbq in Austin are the ones that are the closest to you. They're all good, and it's a waste of your precious time to do a boring Yelp search.

USA Floorball: Will any HFC players be participating in the USA Floorball Development Camp happening in the days before the tournament? If so, is there a part of your game you'd like to work on specifically?
Luke: I reckon we'll have a handful there. Getting the ball from an opponent without stick checking them is definitely a skill I'd like to work on, preferably with a cooperative partner and an experienced ref to guide the strategizing. We all love to practice shooting and I love to do it. But making good passes and shooting good one-timers is a lot harder than it looks, and worth as much or more practice, too.

USA Floorball: Dreaming big, and if money were no object, what one thing would you add to a floorball tournament?
Luke: Did I mention I like beer? If you score a goal, you have chug a beer; that would be motivating. I've also talked about a Lights Out game with a few people. Blacklit sticks and balls so you're playing in the dark like at Laser Tag, and hopefully not too many injuries. But I think the greatest addition would be a play-by-play TV feed hosted by myself and Mark Raup.

USA Floorball: HFC's jerseys are a lovely sky-blue. Is there any significance behind the color choice?
Luke: Those uniforms ARE lovely, huh? My co-coordinator Jyri Koivisto chose blue for the SWIFT tournament in 2013. And as we are the Pioneers, we embody their spirit of pointing our wagons (sticks?) towards the promising blue skies (open nets?) of the west. Incidentally, as rad as our logo is, some confuse the intimidating goalie mask for a strawberry, which is obviously ludicrous. But don't overlook our uniforms' official Houston Floorball socks either.  They are grey because that was the cheapest color the sock company had.

USA Floorball: Anything else you'd like to mention about HFC, the Nationals, development camp, or USA Floorball?
Luke: One thing I've sincerely enjoyed about playing a (currently!) niche sport is the community that develops around it. It's neat to be in equal contact with kids playing their first game and the brass pulling the strings at the top simultaneously. Something, something inneband of brothers, you know what I mean?