Minor League Hockey

Professional minor league hockey is crazy. I took our youth group to the Knoxville Icebears hockey game Friday night. That was an experience to say the least. First let me say this, it was a crazy night all the way around. Instead of taking them to the normal fast food place to eat, I decided to be nice and give them a variety. So I took them to the food court of our Knoxville Center Mall. Now if you aren’t from K-town you wouldn’t understand what a big decision this was. East town mall as it used to be called is no longer the greatest place to be going, especially with a large group of teenagers on a Friday night! It’s not the safest place to be. It’s shall we say, thugged out. So even though the teens and some of our leaders were a little hesitant, I assured them it would be fine. IT wasn’t. After we ate and people watched for about 45 minutes, it was time to load up to head to the game. Walking to the door, we noticed an unusual number of police officers around, well an even more unusual than the already unusual amount that is normally there. When we get to the door we noticed a police officer locking down the building, but he still let us leave to go to the vans. Outside, there were more officers and cameras everywhere. We finally found out that just a few minutes before we walked out there was a drive by shooting in that spot. Can you say I’m officially the youth pastor of the year for taking my teens to a drive by? It was crazy. When we finally get to the hockey game, we realized that every redneck in East Tennessee showed up for this night and that was just in the family section of the game. It was crazy. From people cursing everywhere, drunks by the dozen, and makeout sessions that would make a rockstar blush. The teens definitely got an eye full this last Friday, probably more than that $8 ticket they bargained for. I don’t see me taking them to anymore hockey games anytime soon.