FRIDAY FEATURE: Students relieve stress, relive childhood with ministicks games
The ball was in mid air.
It nearly stood still, frozen while Rochester sophomore Kelly Markaity spotted the opportunity.
He raised his stick, slapping the foam ball with a 1-foot plastic hockey stick into the corner of the 2-by-3 foot goal not guarded by the goalie — his roommate. The game: ministicks.
“Any time during the week, if we are bored, we play,” Markaity said. “If we have friends over, we play. If we have girls over, we play. We’ll play for them a little, and they’ll want to play too."
The game is a miniature version of hockey with a smaller net, plastic sticks and a foam ball. Given the players' size relative to the equipment, the three usual participants play on their knees to match the net’s height.
“I first picked up the game when I was 7 years old," Markaity said. "Only difference is that (when younger), you are smaller. It’s easier to score and you can play full-force for 30 minutes. Now, we’re out of shape and old, so we go hard for 10 minutes before we need a break to just to try to catch our breath.”
Markaity, along with sophomores Chris Brown, of Rochester, and Mike DiMaria, of Rochester Hills, play the popular youth game at their Polo Village apartment a few times a week to relieve stress and keep physical activity high instead of sitting on the couch and watching TV.
The trio started playing this semester after Markaity found his old set while rummaging through his basement during the December break.
“You get to unwind and stop thinking about work and school,” DiMaria said.
He said he did not play hockey as a kid, and was amused to begin on the smaller scale.
“It brought me back to being a little kid and joking around. It’s just a lot of fun and pretty competitive between us. We definitely do not take it easy on each other. At times, it can get pretty rough.”
Their games do not have specific number of goals or time limits as targets to reach.
The group tries to impress visitors with the game first, he said, so guests can see how much fun it can be before inviting them to play. Female visitors are welcome to play too, Markaity said.
Sarah Angeli said ministicks is more of an opportunity to bond with friends for her.
“For people like me that can barely skate, we can still be competitive with the boys and don’t have to embarrass ourselves,” the Rochester Hills sophomore said.
Checking was out of the question as kids, Markaity said. The same rules do not apply in college.
“We definitely body check. It’s rough. We cream each other,” he said. “If anyone gets hurt, we stop, but we take good hits trying to score.”
