Larry Leet spent more than half of his lifetime smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.<\/p>\n
Today, nearly four years since giving up his smoking addiction, the 56-year-old Leet gets his fix on the ice.<\/p>\n
Instead of smokes, Leet can\u2019t get enough of hockey, a sport he admittedly knew nothing \u2013 nor cared anything about \u2013 four years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a 35-year smoker,\u201d Leet concedes as he laces up his skates at the ShoWare Center, where he took part this week Seattle Thunderbird Coach Rob Sumner’s Hockey Camp. \u201cI quit, and on my 1-year anniversary, a co-worker of mine said he was interested in hockey and that he didn\u2019t want to get into it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leet didn\u2019t know quite what he was in for on that day in 2006.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, Leet skated out to the ice as the oldest player among a handful of campers taking part in the adult age group of a clinic hosted by the Seattle Thunderbirds. And as was clear for all to see, hockey has taken hold of the 56-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not a fan of hockey before and I knew nothing about it,\u201d said Leet, who wasn\u2019t involved in sports growing up and found televised sporting events \u201cboring.\u201d \u201cNow, I play hockey three times a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leet\u2019s passion for the puck was evident during Sumner\u2019s camp at ShoWare earlier this week. The camp was broken down into four age brackets (6-8, 9-10, 11-12 and the adult group, which was 18 and older).<\/p>\n
Leet was the oldest camper of all \u2014 and also one of the most enthusiastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cLarry is so into it,\u201d T-birds coach Sumner said. \u201cHe has a lot of questions \u2014 and good questions, too. And I love to talk hockey, so we seem to get along very well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done adult camps before, and it\u2019s always fun because the people who sign up really want to be here,\u201d Sumner continued. \u201cThey really love hockey and want to improve. They want to learn new things and talk hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since taking up the sport four years ago, little has kept Leet away from the sport.<\/p>\n
Not even a broken leg, an injury he suffered on the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just standing around watching somebody else take a lesson. I had been skating for an hour and was tired and just fell down,\u201d Leet recalled of how he broke his right leg three years ago. \u201cWhen I got to the doctor, I asked them, \u2018Is there a way to cast it with a skate on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the sport is as much about staying in shape for Leet as it is a way to bond with his 24-year-old son, Chris.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really fun thing to be able to do together,\u201d said Chris, who was pulled into the sport by his father. \u201cRight now, the only thing I really have on him is his speed, but everything else \u2026 he practices a lot harder than I do. He has better stick handling than I do and, skating itself, technically, he\u2019s a lot better than I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
By day, Larry Leet is the chief boiler inspector for the City of Seattle.<\/p>\n
Hockey, however, has taken hold of his nights. Along with the camp held at the ShoWare Center, Leet also is a member of the Squids hockey club, which is part of the Greater Seattle Hockey League.<\/p>\n
The way Leet figures it, hockey, rough and tumble as it is, has no age boundaries.<\/p>\n
Even for those in their mid-50s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get a lot of exercise and a lot of camaraderie with the teams,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten to know how the game works. Now, when I watch a WHL (Western Hockey League) game, I can figure out \u2018Oh, well, that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing. Otherwise, it looks like a bunch of bumble bees swarming around the puck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a hoot and a holler.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Larry Leet spent more than half of his lifetime smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
\nToday, nearly four years since giving up his smoking addiction, the 56-year-old Leet gets his fix on the ice.
\nInstead of smokes, Leet can\u2019t get enough of hockey, a sport he admittedly knew nothing \u2013 nor cared anything about \u2013 four years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":20322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20321"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}