Curtis and Stephanie Dracz, two Canadian expats who met in Beijing in 2013 during a hockey event, wrote their first children’s book last year, Tarps Off! Dominated by hockey lingo and silly illustrations of warm father-son bonding moments, the book is perfect for a fun family read.

As two exceptional sports enthusiasts, Stephanie took her swimming career to the highest level and swam for Team USA in the 2004 Olympics, while Curt built his own career around hockey, Can Life Sports, through self-devised marketing and promotion.

We had the opportunity to chat with Curt and hear about his intent to create the book and his unfathomable love for ice hockey.

Who or what did you and your wife draw your biggest inspiration from when writing this storybook?
Our daughter Avery for sure. The thought was always to give her a story – literally and figuratively. Although the book is about a father and son, it does relate to young children in general. In the early years, shirtless children become quite a natural occurrence. We hope the term “Tarps Off” can live on within the household. 

What personal experience sparked the massive use of hockey language in your book Tarps Off?
I found myself reading books to my daughter, pretending to enjoy the books, but never really had a connection to them, so we wrote our own. Stephanie is an educator, so she brought in the academic side, making sure the book made sense and [is]applicable to children’s education. I used inspiration from my life as a hockey player, drawing back on experiences where tarps came off, and together, we softened the term to make it suitable for young children.

Many of us here in China are not entirely familiar with ice hockey. Could you briefly tell us about your experience with it and what it means to you?
Obviously, it would be a personal bias to say that hockey is the best sport in the world, but that’s how I feel about it. It’s a sport that allows me to continue to play in my adult life, gives me the ability to travel around the world, and most importantly, belong to a community. 

We learned that you are one of the founders of Can Life Sports Beijing. Could you tell us a bit more about the kind of work you do there and what drove you to your mission?
Can Life Sports has always been about building a culture and lifestyle around the game of hockey. The sport gives us a lot more than just competition, so that’s the part we’re dedicated to. We continue to educate our domestic partners about worldwide sports culture while bridging relationships with our foreign partners on the Chinese way with sport and business. 

From writing and editing to illustrating, manufacturing, and eventually publishing, the book took nine months to produce, all of which was done during the pandemic. “It’s easy to let an idea fade away,” says Curt, “but at the end of the day, you’ll learn a ton about the process of telling your own story.”

It’s definitely a fun bedtime read with your kids, especially for those with an immense passion for sports and who enjoy silly goofy family bonding moments!

Support Curt and Stephanie’s storybook Tarps Off!, now available for purchase on Amazon or with the QR code below.

KEEP READING: Meet the Author of Brandon Goes to Beijing, a Children’s Book That’s Breaking Cultural Barriers

Images: courtesy of Curtis and Stephanie Dracz

Equipped with world-class facilities and offering an internationally recognized Canadian education curriculum, the Canadian International School of Beijing undoubtedly attaches great importance to their hockey program. We interviewed four of their top players—Rachel, Charlie, Song Tianyi, and Song Tianxin, who are uber passionate about their life on the ice.

“I fell in love with hockey the first time I watched a hockey game,” Rachel told us with excitement, and explained to us some of the rules of the game.

Hockey demands lots of strength and energy, and is physically challenging for athletes especially girls involved in a coed team.

“During the mixed games, there is an inevitable amount of physical contact no matter if you’re a girl or a boy. It can get even more competitive because no boy wants to lose to a girl,” said Rachel’s mother.

“Rachel even got punched in her face competing with an American team last year, when she tried to score and the opposing team’s goalkeeper tried to stop the puck. Rachel used her full force to confront the goalkeeper and scored anyway,” she said.

Rachel’s parents were not that supportive of Rachel’s decision to play hockey until she showed her persistent enthusiasm.

“I convinced my parents by playing hard. I never complained despite how tough the training was, and tried to make progress with each practice.”

Nine-year-old Charlie is the team leader for the grade 1-3 team. Starting hockey when he was just six years old, Charlie usually plays center. Charlie told us his favorite part of doing hockey is the speed.

“I feel like I’m Optimus Prime when I wear my hockey gear. I enjoy it even though the training can sometimes be really tiring,” said Charlie.

“Charlie is not very tall, that’s one of the reasons we chose hockey for him rather than basketball,” Charlie’s dad told us. “He is agile and has good sense of logic, which puts him into a more advantageous position for playing the sport.”

“I think having a positive attitude is more important than winning the game,” Charlie’s mom said.

“Yeah, we agree on that. We think as parents we need to give Charlie our full support and understanding. His devotion and passion ultimately will help him stand out,” Charlie’s father added.

13-year-old Song Tianyi and 12-year-old Song Tianxin are a brother and sister, who have been playing hockey for five and half years, and one and half years respectively. Tianyi plays full back, while Tianxin is the goalkeeper.
“I have faith in them. I believe they will play better and better if they set up goals for themselves and keep powering forward,” said the pair’s mom.

Tianyi and Tianxin dream of entering the National Hockey League (NHL) and Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), and playing for the national team in Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics.

“Rachel has become more strong-minded thanks to playing hockey.” said her mom. She wants to prove to her coach that she can play as well as the boys on the team.

“I’m happy to notice Charlie’s changes as well. He became more outgoing and strong-willed. Playing hockey not only improved his physical fitness, but gave him more self-confidence, and gave him the belief that you reap what you sow,” Charlie’s dad told us and turned to his son saying “I’m very proud of you. Nothing else but your own devotion and hard work can take the credit for what you’ve achieved.”

“Being a team leader has cultivated the spirit of teamwork into Rachel,” said Rachel’s mom. “She comforts her team members whenever they fail to score instead of complaining.”

“For me, I care more about the unity of the team than wining the competition,” said Rachel, “All of the team members are my good friends. I’m so happy to play with them.”

We could tell that they were consumed with passion for this sport that only recently has entered the national spotlight with Beijing getting its own KHL team and preseason NHL games occurring in multiple cities across China. Rachel’s face lit up with pleasure and pride when talking about the most unforgettable game they played.

“For the first half of the game, our opponents were three goals ahead when I was transferred into the center position. From there I scored four goals and opposing team scored one. The score was 5:5, so the last several minutes were super intense. We landed an extra goal in the last two minutes before the game ended, and succeeded in holding the lead despite the opposing team becoming desperately aggressive.”

“I think the opposing team was too eager to win. Being too competitive sometimes doesn’t help in this game,” Rachel said, and we could see why she was one of the team leaders with this very positive outlook.

The most impressive game Tianyi played was the U12 Tournament in Beijing last year. His team didn’t lose a single match.

“The moment of scoring is very exciting. Of course we lost sometimes, but that didn’t frustrate us into performing poorly during the next game,” Tianyi said.

“As a parent, I totally understand other parents’ concerns,” said Tianyi’s mother, “I always tell Tianyi to play fair and square, respect other players, and don’t regard winning as the only purpose.”

“The pleasure of winning of course comes with the frustrations of losing. I think for the children, learning how to face failure and overcome it is more important than enjoying the pleasure of victory,” said Rachel’s mom.

“They lost in a game in Hong Kong. They played really hard and were so upset when the opponents were celebrating. Rachel controlled herself until I told her that it was ok to cry.”

Hearing what her mom said, Rachel kissed her head and became quiet in thought.

“One of the team members asked to be taken out during a game due to feeling unwell, but Charlie’s team didn’t quit and played harder. I was so moved by their spirit and attitude,” Charlie’s Dad recollected. “Learning to balance winning and losing is a major process of growing-up.”

Even though practicing hockey is very demanding, these children also perform well in their studies, as well as other hobbies. In addition to hockey, Tianyi also plays baseball and piano, and helps his mom do housework.

“He is very independent, and even helps me cook and take care of his younger sister,” his mom added.

Tianxin, his younger sister, has been learning dancing and piano, which may seem quite the opposite of this very physical contact sport. Charlie is excellent at swimming and is also an ABRSM level-5 piano player. Rachel likes all kinds of sports, and is learning the Chinese flute and French.

“I found out that good hockey players also do great in other areas. I think it is the spirit of not giving up they gained from playing hockey and this works additionally in other areas of interest,” said Rachel’s mom.

At the end of the interview, Rachel read one of her favorite lines of poetry from The Biography of Yue Fei: “Don’t waste your youth and regret fruitlessly when moving forward into old age.”

We could tell when talking to these active kids that regret, especially regarding hockey, was the furthest thing from their minds, as they were gaining all of the necessary tools to live their lives in the moment. This is an invaluable attribute that follow them on and off the ice for many years to come.

Photo: fatherly.com

This article appeared on p48-51 beijingkids’ November 2017 issue.
Download your copy here.

This weekend hockey players from Beijing and beyond will gather for the fifth annual Pond Hockey Tournament. To find out more we talked to the tournament’s founder, Curtis Dracz, and asked him where the idea came from.

“It’s a tradition of the Beijing hockey community to skate on lakes and ponds,” he told us. “So I decided to set up an event, a one day activity which would bring together guys from local leagues, players from out of town, and families, to support the growth of hockey in the city.”

“The challenge comes though when global warming has had an effect on the temperature in Beijing, and Houhai no longer freezes in midwinter. It’s frozen now, but I couldn’t ask people to skate on it.”

So when and where is this year’s event?

“It kicks off on Friday January 13, when 10 teams from out of town arrive. Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) have built a rink outside, so eight games will take place there on Friday. Pie Squared will be providing the food, and the Hockey Bar will be supplying the drinks.”

“Then on Saturday we’ll be at the China Millennium Monument, just to the west of Tiananmen. There’s three rinks, two indoor and one outdoor, and the remaining 38 games will take place there. The Irish Volunteer will be laying on breakfast and lunch, and Oasis Hospital will provide medical services. It’ll be a full day of hockey, music and fun, which showcases the lifestyle, how we participate in the sport.”

“The end goal is never winning or the trophy, it’s always about making new friends, and promoting hockey in China.”

With a recent tour by a Canadian team, Beijing’s own Kunlun Redstar joining the KHL, and the 2022 Winter Olympics fast approaching, it’s clear that hockey is on the rise in the city.

Photos: courtesy of Curtis Dracz

The biting cold and lingering smog have made most families stay at home in recent days. Surely doing an outdoor activity is quite distressing because of the unfavorable weather. However I received an invitation to watch an ice hockey match, just to keep things lively on what otherwise might have been another boring winter day.

The match was held at Hokay Ice Sport Center, just behind the Civil Aviation General Hospital on Chaoyang Road, in between 4th and 5th East Ring Road. When I went inside the center, the match had just begun.

Spartans vs. Hokay home team

It was a part of the 2016-2017 Goodwill China Tour of Trinity Western University from Canada. Its award-winning ice hockey team, the Spartans, has been touring for a cultural interchange through sport with teams from Russia, Sweden, South Korea, and China. On January 5, they played the home team Hokay.

John Mcintosh, the tour manager, told me TWU visited Hope International School and Canadian International School of Beijing after finishing the team’s inaugural match this tour year in Chengde on December 28. “We visited the schools because we’re very interested with building relationship to have their students go at Trinity,” Mcintosh said.

A lot of audience members were not only from HIS and CISB but there were also local families. Martin Beeson, a teacher at HIS, watched the match together with his 3 sons. Beeson said TWU contacted HIS last year to let them know about the goodwill hockey tour. He added that Liberty University from the US also contacted HIS for last year’s ice hockey friendly event.

“We are delighted that the teams [referring to TWU and Liberty University]have included us in their itineraries,” Beeson said, adding that HIS is looking forward to continue building good relationships with the two universities. “Every senior who has graduated from HIS has gone on to attend university in some part of the world, mostly in the US. We’d like to see some of our students go to TWU and Liberty.” 

Just as the players took a half-time break, a Chinese kid caught my attention as he was really hooked into the game. It’s when I asked his mother, Lucia Su, that I found out that 5-year-old Lucas was fond of the game and that he’s a member of a local kid’s hockey club.

5-year-old Lucas Jia watching the game

“Last August, we went to the US to watch a live hockey game,” Lucia said, adding that she also plans to bring Lucas to the US to study, and for a possible hockey career. I asked if she looks forward to maybe seeing her son play for the Chinese hockey team at the Olympics and she heartily replied, “I hope so!”

Lucas Jia (bottom right), together with his parents Peter Jia (left of Lucas) and Lucia Su (right) pose for a pic while the players are on break.

As the excitement for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing builds up, surely winter sports like ice hockey are becoming more and more popular in China. Some kids in the audience told me that the game is bringing the heat especially during cold winter days. “All the long shots and the adrenaline rush make ice hockey satisfying and fun to watch,” said JH Yoon, a 12-year-old sixth grader who also used to play the game. “If you like hockey, you should definitely try it! It’s fun,” 11-year-old Vince Ma from CISB told me, while cheering for the Spartans.

TWU concluded its friendship games in Tianjin, where the Spartans celebrated the 25th anniversary of their relations with Tianjin Foreign Studies University. Mcintosh said he hopes they’ve accomplished the aim of their tour – goodwill. “Sport is a wonderful bridge for international friendship,” Mcintosh said, adding that ice hockey teaches kids how to prepare for the world.

“You need to learn in the real world how to keep your head up. It’s the same thing in hockey, we say, ‘Keep your head up, look to see who’s coming to hit you,’ because if you have the puck, anybody can hit you. It’s like that in life.”

First two images courtesy of TWU Media / Jacob Kropf

Hockey fans can enjoy watching 18 teams from today to tomorrow at the National Stadium South Concourse at the 4th Annual Beijing Pond Hockey Tournament @ the 2016 Beijing Ice Hockey Festival. There will be a charity raffle taking place with a chance to win a gateway for two to Sanya or a signed Montreal Canadiens Jersey. The really thrilling games will be taking place tomorrow (Saturday 16) from 8am as today’s will be team registration and preliminary games.

Curtis Dracz, founder of The 4th Annual Beijing Pond Hockey Tournament and owner of Can Life Sports says, “We moved it to the Bird’s Nest this year, for safety reasons, because it’s not as cold and Houhai [where they had it last year]is not as safe this time around. But that turned out great, because The Bird’s Nest is a great venue to have it at, especially leading up to the Winter Olympics. So hopefully we can have more tournaments there in the future.”

In 2022, Beijing will host a multitude of different winter sports athletes, competing to be known as the best in the world. One of the main attractions is sure to be the hockey competitions that will be held in National Indoor Stadium near the Bird’s Nest. Fans will get the chance to watch some professional National Hockey League (NHL) players hoping to win gold.

Hockey is among North America’s top four professional team sports and the one with the oldest trophy in the world – the Stanley Cup.  Canadian based teams have won the title more times than their American counterparts.

Canada’s dominance (seeing as it’s the national sport) has generated interest enough to bring over former players to spread the passion of the sport to the young Chinese kids hoping that one day there will be more Chinese professional players in the NHL.

Four former Montreal Canadiens are currently in Beijing holding clinics at various locations, helping kids improve skills such as how to properly hold the hockey stick, hand-eye coordination, and more. Mathieu Dandenault, Gaston Gingras, Steve Shutt, and Patrice Brisebois are taking turns on the ice and teaching small groups of kids all about the game.

We got to sit down with Gingras and Brisebois, who are visiting China for the first time and are part of the Montreal Canadiens Alumni Program at the Kempinski Hotel Beijing Lufthansa Center. Since the 1990s, Gingras has been coaching kids. Some of his students have ended up playing for the NHL. He says that being passionate about something is the most important factor for successful kids.

“It’s truly amazing to see the progress of kids as they keep improving,” says Gingras. The language barrier isn’t a major obstacles as most of the clinics are action based; the kids follow what the players are doing. They also have translators to help them when explaining more involved points.

The one of the organizers of the clinics, CTC Ice and Snow specialize in consulting, designing, engineering, manufacturing, installing, and servicing ice rinks and surfaces across Asia. They plan on promoting more hockey clinics and events,  especially in winter.

Dracz says “I’m managing the Habs [nickname for the Montreal Canadiens]tour as well. Saturday is their last day in China, so we’re going to take them to the tournament at the Bird’s Nest. They’re going to lace up and play a short game, so it’ll be a nice event for people to spectate, and take photos and autographs.”

Fans wanting to join a team can get more information and help by getting in touch with the Beijing International Ice Hockey League (BIIH).

Photo: Curtis Dracz

Hutong dwellers will surely do double takes this weekend, as Beijing’s hockey lovers skate and stick handle their way across Houhai lake. 

"Many Chinese come by to check out the festivities. When you mix music, beer and food with a bunch of foreigners skating around, it’s a pretty cool sight,” says Curtis Dracz, the general manager of Center Ice Asia, which is coordinating its third annual Houhai Pond Hockey Tournament on Friday evening and all day Saturday. 

Greg MacIsaac – a longtime participant in the tournament who is both playing and refereeing this year – agrees that the event is a unique spectacle for Chinese attendees. 

“The Chinese already know that Canadians love winter sports, especially hockey,” MacIsaac says. “They see, in our Houhai tournament, our desire to showcase the sport that we love to them. I’ve had some Chinese come up to me later and thank us for playing. They genuinely seem appreciative to see it first hand.”

And while local Beijingers – along with the throngs of expat fans that show up to cheer the players on every year – may be intrigued to see Canada’s favorite pastime juxtaposed with a backdrop of Chinese hutong rooftops, Dracz says the community’s leaders were not so easily impressed.

"Negotiating ice time and fees with the local municipality on a famous lake was a bit of a challenge,” Dracz says, adding: "I don’t think they knew what to expect the first year, but each year seems to become a little easier. We’ve now developed a strong relationship.”  

The tournament will be comprised of 120 players on 16 teams from the Center Ice Asia affiliated Beijing International Ice Hockey League (Center Ice also organizes toddler skating programs, children’s skating lessons, figure skating lessons, and more throughout the winter at its Haotai Ice Sports Centers on Xinglong Gongyuan Chaoyang Lu and at the Quanfa Garden North Gate). 

Dracz says even the Chinese spectators who are somewhat familiar with the sport may be surprised by pond hockey’s unique variations. Hyper competitive elements like checking and slap shots are barred (in part because of a lack of professional protective equipment), and a typically small nets are used with no goalie to safeguard them. 

“Our tournament is recreational, so it’s more about the experience of playing on a famous lake in the middle of Beijing,” Dracz says, adding this relaxed format can be very refreshing for the players and the fans. He adds: ”Having fun and meeting new people is key.”

MacIsaac says this more causal approach is actually the sport’s purest form, adding: "Pond hockey is very popular in Canada, and it is where most Canadians learned how to skate and play. It’s really a chance to enjoy the true roots of the game. It harks back to every player’s boyhood."

Although Canadians make up the bulk of the participants, the tournament also features many other hockey savvy players from Finland, the US, Japan, Mongolia and other locales, along with a growing, albeit still small, number of Chinese players. 

"Not too many Chinese people compete in the tournament, although we will have a team made up of Chinese nationals this year,”  Dracz says, adding that he hopes more and more Chinese players will continue to join.

Dracz says such events allow locals to partake in an exotic pastime, while also helping expats settle into their new home. "The tournament has become an event for foreigners to relive their pond hockey memories from back home. Pond hockey, as well as our league, is a home away from home. It’s kept a lot of guys in China way past their anticipated time frame.” 

The Houhai Pond Hockey Tournament will begin on Friday (Jan 23) at 7pm at Shichahai (the portion of Houhai lake, near the Starbucks), followed by an after party at The Hockey Bar. Saturday’s first games begin at 8am near the Dongming Hutong entrance, and continue all afternoon, followed by a banquet at Lodora Station and an 8pm after party at The Hockey Bar. For more information, contact Center Ice Asia here.

This post first appeared on theBeijinger.com on January 20, 2015

beijingkids Shunyi Correspondent Sally Wilson moved to Beijing in 2010 from the UK with her husband and son. Her daughter was born here in 2011 and both her kids keep her happily busy. In her spare time, Sally loves to stroll through Beijing’s hutongs and parks. She is a (most of the time) keen runner and loves reading: books, magazines, news, and celeb websites – anything really. Sally is also a bit of a foodie and loves trying out new restaurants.

 Photos: courtesy of Center Ice Asia, Beatrice Murch (flickr), Sally Wilson

The gloves are dropped, the sticks thrown away. An animalistic rumble of anticipation sweeps through the arena as the two grown men circle each other menacingly. And then suddenly, without warning, it’s on. The men lunge at each other and begin to pound away, unloading haymaker after haymaker, as blood begins to fly over the otherwise pristine sheet of ice. By now, the atmosphere inside the arena is absolutely electric, with thousands of fans cheering and jeering. And then as suddenly as it began, it’s over. The referees rush in to forcibly separate the two men who are known as‘enforcers’ in the sport of ice hockey. One stamps back to the locker room sporting a bloody cut to the head while the other one skates to the ‘sin bin’ to wait out his five minute penalty.

As a big hockey fan myself, I do not deny that I love watching fights, whether they be to defend teammates, to swing the momentum of a game, or act aspayback for a previous crime. However, in light of an incident in a National Hockey League game this year, I, along with most of the hockey world, have begun to question the necessity of the blood sport of fighting in hockey. In a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, forward Shawn Thornton challenged Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik to a fight. Orpik refused. Thornton responded by tripping Orpik and then pounding his head into the ice until he was unconscious. But behind their show of bravado and masculinity, enforcers often nurse long-term physical and mental injuries that we as fans do not see.

Bob Probert was a fan favorite who participated in 240 fights throughout his fifteen-year NHL career. At the age of forty-five, he suffered a fatal heart attack after which his brain was donated to science. Researchers at Boston University found that Probert suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is a degenerative disease brought on through repetitive brain trauma. Symptoms include memory loss, dementia, and depression. In the context of fighting, repetitive brain trauma could be a result of repeated blows to the head. Although there is no definitive link yet between fighting and CTE, researchers are finding more and more evidence that seems to point to this conclusion.

To enforcers such as Buffalo Sabres’ defense man John Scott, fighting is a difficult, yet necessary component of their professional lives. “I’ve stayed up nights not sleeping a wink because I know I’m going to fight someone the next day,” said Scott. “It’s not natural to go out and fight everyday, or to have that constant threat of a fight…Some guys might not be able to sleep, and they take some stuff to t help them sleep.” This fear led to the eventual substance abuse-related death of enforcer Derek Boogaard, who played for the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers.  Despite the pressure, enforcers continue to fight, as it is seen as the only way that these less-skilled players can make it to the big leagues alongside their superstar peers.

Although fighting in hockey is a long and storied tradition that continues to draw droves of fans to the game, to support the continuation of fighting would be to ignore the plight of enforcers as human beings. Because of this, the constant fighting in the sport of ice hockey should come to an abrupt and definite close.

This article originally appeared in the April,2014 issue of UNIT-E. It was written by Edward Chang, a student at the International School of Beijing.

About UNIT-E
UNIT-E was founded in the spring of 2010 with the aim of establishing a non-profit, student-run magazine for international students in Beijing. Staffed by current students from a range of international schools, the magazine provides an amalgam of cultural tidbits, fragments of Beijing student life, and a broad spectrum of unique perspectives from a diverse group of young adults.

Photo courtesy of wikimedia commons