April
5,
2004
NCAA Frozen Four
Postcard: A Family Affair
By
Nate Ewell
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Related Link |
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Too
Much Hockey?
NCAA and FleetCenter organizers are prepared for five games
in four days. |
Joyce Rolston
is the quintessential hockey mom, and she’s sat, cheered
and screamed her way through Frozen Fours and Stanley Cup Playoff
runs in support of her three sons.
But she’s
never had a week like the one that lies ahead of her in Boston.
Her son Ron is an assistant coach helping lead Boston College
in the Frozen Four, while his brother Brian skates for the Bruins
in the first round of the playoffs.
Yes, event
organizers have it tough – getting the rink ready for five
games in four days will be no easy task. Joyce will be there,
too, emotionally invested in every shot, hit and goal. She notes
that Brian will be “sequestered in a hotel” with the
Bruins all week; Joyce, meanwhile, will be sequestered in the
FleetCenter. Nobody’s spent this much time in a Boston rink
since the Blizzard of ’78.
“I can
take it,” she said late last week from her Fenton, Michigan,
home. “I’m a hockey mom – I’m tough.”
Good fortune
and hard work has brought her sons to the same city, and in reach
of their sports’ biggest prizes. Ron, who coached in three
straight Frozen Fours from 1992-94 with Lake Superior State, hasn’t
been back to the big stage in 10 years. He came to the Boston
area with Harvard in 1999 and joined BC before last season.
|
Another Family Affair |
| The
Rolstons aren't the only BC hockey family with eyes on both
the Frozen Four and the Staney Cup Playoffs. Sophomore Stephen
Gionta's brother, Brian, will be facing Philadelphia in
the first round as a member of the New Jersey Devils. It's
possible that in the second round, Stephen's brother could
be facing his assistant coach's brother. |
Brian, who
was on those 1992 and ’93 Laker teams and won a Stanley
Cup with New Jersey in 1995, joined him in the Hub when he was
traded to the Bruins in the Ray Bourque deal in 2000.
The family
has appreciated their proximity. Joyce has become a frequent visitor
to Boston – “I love the city,” she says. Brian brought his son to the Eagle locker room after the Beanpot victory,
while Ron catches as many Bruin games as possible – as
much, it seems, to keep an eye on the coaching strategies as it
is to watch his brother.
This week
promises to be a new experience for everyone involved. Joyce has
her bags packed, with outfits color-coded like the ones she probably
used to lay out for the boys when they were kids: black and gold
for Wednesday and Friday, BC sweatshirt for Thursday and Saturday.
Joyce’s
only piece of advice for Eagles and Bruins fans who will be joining
her in the crowd is one she admits she won’t follow: “You
have to try not to get too emotional,” she said. “It’s
just a hockey game.”
Or just five
hockey games, in her case.
