Play It Again Sports Portland Maine Chris
The Rousseau family has been running hockey clinics and sports expert sales in southern Maine for decades. Now they are hoping to return back to normal presently.
PORTLAND, Maine — The Play Information technology Once again Sports on Marginal Way in Portland is hiding hockey history inside. If you play the game, then you might realize it when you walk towards The Skate Store in the back to get a fresh edge on your blades.
Behind the counter is Guy Rousseau. Guy has been sharpening skates since the family-run store opened, near 20 years ago.
"Doing what I dreamed to practice," said Guy Rousseau in an interview with NEWS Center Maine back in March. "Talking hockey all the time."
Guy is from Asbestos, Canada where he was playing hockey at age 6. He met a adult female named Dorothy from Lewiston at a wedding in Canada. Guy moved to Maine and they after married. While in Lewiston, he joined the State Kitchen semi-pro hockey team as a forward.
Guy and Dot'south four sons were surrounded past the sport from a young age and as his family grew, then did the touch they had on hockey in southern Maine.
Subsequently traveling to a tournament, Guy says he noticed the skaters from Connecticut and Rhode Island had better skills than players from Maine, and in 1986 he started a skills dispensary with his oldest son Gary, which is yet effectually today.
Rousseau's Hockey Clinic began in the Lewiston area. Information technology has since expanded to Falmouth, Augusta, and Portland. According to its website, the Rousseaus have trained over eight,000 k hockey players, and that statistic was dated in 2016.
Guy primarily sticks to skate sharpening these days and leaves the coaching to his sons Gary and Scott, and grandchildren Adam, Erik, and Lauren. There are more than Rousseaus in the wings ready to take on the family business organization.
"[The clinics] had brought the family so shut together, and we exercise then much with hockey together, go on the water ice, and I love it," laughed Rousseau.
They have never seen a year quite like 2020. Ii weeks into the bound clinic the state shutdown, and essentially hockey stopped in Maine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guy had to temporarily walk abroad from skate sharpening, for his safety and health.
During the summer months, the spring clinic was able to finish and other clinics were able to get all of their skaters through before cases started to rise again in the fall.
Play Information technology Again Sports in Portland and Biddeford were also affected. Skate sharpening turned curbside and sports equipment sales hinged on state guidelines for athletes returning to the field, court, or rink.
"It's a struggle for a lot of people in the pandemic," said Scott Rousseau. "Nosotros are just hoping to get to the other side of this matter. Correct now [for] our Biddeford store, there is no hockey in York County. York County was yellow all autumn, so at that place are not a lot of sports being played, there are not a lot of sporting good sales happening."
The pandemic is causing families to go months, or longer, without seeing loved ones. For a family run business, with grandparents and children in the mix, staying apart affected work and family life. This includes scores of volunteers and coaches that have been with the Rousseaus for years.
"One thing that the game has taught u.s.a., and our family hockey school has taught us, is how important family unit is, specially during times like these," said Adam Rousseau, Guy's grandson.
The Rousseaus had occasions where they tin can safely get together, on the beach in the summer and in the colder months, no surprise, it involved skating.
"In this pandemic, to find that little artery to go together and skate together when we tin, it's been tough having to shut downwards," said Gary Rousseau, Guy's son.
Scott Rousseau retired Guy's number 5 jersey to the rafters until his dad tin can safely return to the store, a moment Guy is waiting for.
"I'yard hoping things will quiet down and we'd exist able to get to the shop and practise my affair and be with the family unit again," said Guy. "[I'm] waiting for the right fourth dimension to go back. It's been very hard not to exist autonomously of this beautiful game of ours."
Source: https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/sports/hockey-family-business-hit-hard-by-the-pandemic/97-7ec215f0-90a2-4fcc-abfe-63aed00f38fd
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