Iowan to Know: Hockey player Tim Gibson

WEST DES MOINES – When oldsters hit retirement, it is time to slow down and take it smooth, proper? Not for one man from West Des Moines who’s playing hockey, of all things, with gamers almost 50 years younger than him. It’s now not your traditional retirement plan, and it makes him an Iowan to understand.

“It feels the first rate. It always feels the equal,” said Tim Gibson, sixty-six. “There’s simply some thing approximately taking that first step out at the ice.”

For Gibson, that first step has come about thousands of instances. Growing up in West Des Moines, he picked up the sport the old skool way, on a frozen Iowa pond.

“I began gambling when I became only a little child,” he said. “We played pond hockey. We played down at a park in West Des Moines at 24th and Vine for years.”

By the mid-1960s, he becomes playing organized hockey with the Des Moines Youth Association. But eventually, paintings and own family lifestyles became too worrying, and hockey got away from him.

“Well I took about 20 or 25 years off,” said Gibson. “I had a few youngsters to raise and an activity to do. But now with the kids long gone and being retired I’ve got lots of time to play hockey.”

So greater than 50 years after he first hit the frozen pond, he’s observed the proper location to hold his recreation going, Central Iowa D League Hockey. In its 2nd 12 months gambling out of Buccaneer Arena, the league has grown quickly to 12 groups and nearly two hundred gamers. It’s a reunion of types for Tim. Bucs Arena is the identical rink in which he played kids hockey see you later in the past.

“It’s got super reminiscences. I suppose it smells identical whenever you are available. It’s like back after I become 14 years antique,” he stated. “They should have put 20 coats of paint on the indoors, however it is a grand old arena and that I just love coming here to play.”

“Gibby is a notable man to have at the team,” said Gibson’s educate, John Reichart. “First of all, he has a ton of enjoy. He’s been playing hockey a long time. He’s the form of a quiet man. So when he does talk his phrases communicate volumes because he knows what he’s talking approximately and the alternative men select up on that.”

Organizers of the league say it is tricky setting older and more youthful gamers at the ice together. Hockey within the professional ranks is a difficult game. But this league bans checking and another bodily play that might discourage folks who are re-coming across the game years later.

Gibson says he doesn’t worry about injuries due to the fact the league is watching intently. That frees him up to do what he does, skate and score.

“It’s no longer simply physical, it’s intellectual too,” he stated. “I stroll away from the area after a recreation just feeling remarkable. It’s no longer simplest being out on the ice, but the camaraderie in the locker room is fun.”

The league is inside the middle of its season right now, which runs from October to April. Tim’s group, the Knights, are nonetheless undefeated. You can test out the league on Facebook. It’s at Central Iowa D-League Hockey Group.