Juniors James Thomas Brown and Josh Farrell both started their ice hockey careers at a young age. At the time they joined, the team was called the Little Rock Chaos, but two years ago the name was changed to the Little Rock Aces.<\/p>\n
It all started back when Brown was in second grade. He said, \u201cOne of my good friends, Zack Banko, taught me how to skate, and that\u2019s what really pushed me to want be on the hockey team. And I didn\u2019t realize it at the time, but Zack would end up becoming one of my best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Farrell joined a year later, he said, \u201cReally, I started my journey to be on the hockey team back in first grade. That\u2019s when I learned how to roller skate, and I used that skill when I wanted to join the hockey team.\u201d<\/p>\n
One reason Brown grew so fond of this sport over the years was because of the bond of the team. He said, \u201cOur team has each others\u2019 backs. If we see one of our teammates getting treated unfairly by the other team, it\u2019s gloves off, benches cleared, no exceptions. And that\u2019s another reason I love it so much. It has the physicality of football and the finesse of basketball.\u201d He also said, \u201cI love helping out some of our less experienced players like Griffin Brown and Arden Seamons. All of these different attributes bring us together. It\u2019s like the brotherhood of Catholic High.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team is, in fact, made up of many local players from around Little Rock, but it also has players from around the world. Today there are still players on the team from Russia, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, and Canada. It\u2019s all of these people from different cultures that make the team so diverse.<\/p>\n
What Farrell loves the most about playing hockey is the environment. He said, \u201cThe feeling of that cool ice at anytime of the year is so nice.\u201d But it\u2019s not just the ice that makes up this beloved environment, but also the people. He said, \u201cOur coaches put so much trust in us, which they should, because we all know what we\u2019re doing. And that trust between the coaches and the players is so important. It helps us all feel relaxed. Hockey isn\u2019t taken as seriously as other sports (that I\u2019ve noticed), and that\u2019s not a bad thing. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not hard work as well. The season starts in October and ends in March. We practice all throughout the off season as well. We have practices on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sunday mornings. Then for our tournament, we have to travel as far as places from Dallas to Atlanta. It\u2019s all of these things that make me love it so much\u201d<\/p>\n
Hockey is not all fun and games for Brown either, and has even scared him at times. He said, \u201cThere was a kid on another team that was being aggressive towards me and the rest of our players. At one point he came up while we were playing and tripped me. And this wasn\u2019t an accident. He pulled my skate right from under me and I slid head-first into the boards. But the kid that tripped me was under me. I got up and looked at him and thought he was dead. He didn\u2019t get up and his muscles were extended like you\u2019d see on a dead body. I found out he was unconscious thankfully, but nevertheless, it scared me at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The LR Aces is the smallest team in their league, by people, and by funding. Although this doesn\u2019t make it easier for the players, they choose not to let it affect them. In 2013, they won first place in the Southern Youth Travel Hockey League. Brown said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been through so much together, and we\u2019ve done so many great things. I can\u2019t wait to see what we do next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juniors James Thomas Brown and Josh Farrell both started their ice hockey careers at a young age. At the time they joined, the team was called the Little Rock Chaos, but two years ago the name was changed to the Little Rock Aces. It all started back when Brown was in second grade. He said,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":8035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[97,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/liftoffnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_0765.jpg?fit=600%2C594&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xfZw-25x","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8031"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8038,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031\/revisions\/8038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}