Feature Story

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The Language of Hockey

By Lance Cpl. David Rogers, Okinawa Marine staff

Editor’s note: This article appeared in the Nov. 21 edition of the Okinawa Marine.

NAHA CITY, OKINAWA, Japan – Twelve-year-old Natasha Sellers stood on the ice listening to her coach rant words of discipline. She can’t understand her Japanese coach, but she knew what went wrong. The hockey team lost their focus during practice again, and with the point of her coach’s finger she and her teammates skated laps until they regained it.

Throughout her two and a half years on the team Sellers has never fully understood the words of Coach Yoshiharu Kinjo. She, like many of the American team members, overcomes the language barrier through physical demonstrations and translations from their bilingual teammates.

American service members and civilians interested in creating a youth ice hockey team for their kids started the Ice Pilots six years ago. American children usually make up the team’s majority, but popularity of the sport among Okinawans has grown and now more than half of the Ice Pilot’s 30 team members are Okinawan.

Nozomu Kinjo, one of the team’s more experienced players, has been playing hockey since he was two-years-old. He used to play for the Hope Stars where Yoshiharu Kinjo, his father, was the head coach. The Hope Stars was the first team on Okinawa to allow American players to join. The team eventually began to collapse due to the lack of players. Nozomu Kinjo, his father and the few remaining members merged their team with the Ice Pilots when the team was formed.

“I don’t understand the language but I learned that I can play hockey with anybody,” Nozomu Kinjo said.

Chris Odermatt, the administrative director for the team, said children on the team have adapted well to playing hockey with one another and language is no longer an obstacle for them.

“Hockey is simple and flows better than games such as football,” Odermatt said. “In a game situation, it’s generally instinct for the players to know what to do next.”

Team members find non-verbal ways of communicating while on the ice. As a way of saying, “I’m open; pass to me” players will typically tap on the ice with a hockey stick.

“They may not always understand each other, but once they get on the ice the general objective is to put the puck in the goal,” Odermatt said.

The team is divided into three age groups. Coaches run the team with an “earn your stick” program that teaches kids, around the age of five, how to skate before they can use a hockey stick.

The team competes locally against the Southern Hill Scorpions, the only other youth team on island.

Every year the coaches make it a goal to send part of their team to compete in mainland tournaments. In 2005, the team finished first out of 14 teams in the Kumamoto tournament. In March, a team from Fukuoka city of mainland Japan invited two of the team’s players to an all-Japan tournament in Nagano City.

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