In my school, people don't even consider hockey to be a sport and I'm one of ten hockey players in the entire school (about 800 kids). Where are all the hockey players?? It scares me because I'm beginning to think that its dying out. Are there any other hockey players out there?
It depends on where you live. Up here in Canada, there are people who play hockey pretty much all over the place (I sometimes have a tough time finding baseball fans here, but hockey fans is no problem). Hockey isn't as popular in the US (except in a few states, like Minnesota and Michigan).
It's one of the most expensive sports to invest in, so I wouldn't really be surprised if participation has dropped (unfortunately).
I don't play in a league or anything but if it's warm enough out I'll head down to an outdoor rink and shoot the puck around. Usually there's enough people to play a little 3 on 3 or something. Like Eric said, it's an expensive sport to play in any kind of organized way. Booking icetime, travel time/cost, registration fees and equipment (more expensive if you're younger because you keep growing out of it). I'm not sure how it is in other cities but where I live there are three places with outdoor rinks within walking distance of my house. Each place has two rinks. They are free to use whenever they're not booked. All you really need is a pair of skates and a stick to play, which can still be expensive but way cheaper than the full set of equipment. I'm a little surprised about your school though. I'm not sure what Albany is like but I would have figured New York to be a big hockey state. They have three NHL teams and New Jersey's not too far away.
I'm a big fan of hockey! (as in playing not watching :icon_wink) I've been playing street hockey, ever since I can remember, and I've been playing on ice for 5-6 years now. But yeah, there are not many people, who play it here either. In our small town, we usually had about 10 kids, with whom I'd get together and play some street hockey. And I had two class mates in elementary school, who were training in ice hockey. Our country has a couple of professional teams also, so there are fans of watching hockey, but not so many players. People are more prone to playing soccer or basketball here. But I agree with former posters, that it could be due to the fact, that if you want to play it, you have to pay quite a lot for the gear, to even be able to start. For example, I just bought new skates a week ago, and they cost me 245€ (got the CCM U+10 ), but I have to say, they are such a huge improvement over my old Bauer Vapor skates. We don't play the hardcore hockey though, so we don't have any protective gear, other than gloves and shin guards. So that saves us some money.
It, especially, gets expensive if you want to be a goaltender. All that protective equipment is not cheap.
Where I am its really popular. My hometown had ~2500 people in total, and we had at least two teams at each age level (usually a 2 year gap). Our community does a lot of work to try and get people from lower income families into the game. My brother and I both benefited from that when we played, I didn't wear a new piece of gear until I got a paper route at 13. I appreciated the 2nd hand gear, I was just glad to play. Might just be because I was in Canada, but youth involvement in hockey is at an all time high. It makes it difficult for rec. mens leagues to get ice time, but I dont mind giving up ice time for kids to enjoy themselves.
I used to play as a d-man in high school. Street hockey is fun, too. But like someone already mentioned, hockey is a really expensive sport to play, so it's hard for a lot of high school's and colleges to have it. Hockey is awesome, though.
I imagine it's like football in the way that it has a ton of fans, but not many play it because of the expense and the toll it takes on your body. If kids didn't have their equipment bought by the schools here, I can imagine hardly anyone would play football. Rugby is actually getting much more popular here because of it.
