Tim Rigas gets great joy from being able to renew his love of ice hockey. It’s made even sweeter by being able find a new community to help each other’s sobriety.
Rigas, who plays in the Palm Beach Skate Zone intermediate division, moved to Delray Beach three years ago to get help for an alcohol addiction. He had given up his ice hockey playing days because of it, but that changed during a trip to visit family in Hanover, N.H. While there, he received a call back home from friend Matt Schrieber, who had never played ice hockey before starting at Palm Beach Skate Zone, inspiring Rigas to pack his hockey gear for the flight back. After a few calls with others involved in the program, Rigas was hooked.
“Those guys inspired me to play ice hockey again,” Rigas said.
Over the past six months, Rigas has woken up at 6 a.m. Saturdays to participate in a two-hour training session at Palm Beach Skate Zone with former junior hockey star John Jerrich. Rigas has played in two full seasons and won his first hockey championship.
“I lived here for years [before] I knew there was hockey at Palm Beach Skate Zone in Lake Worth. Surprisingly, I learned to find there’s a lot of people out there skating that are in recovery,” Rigas said.
Although he was a talented roller hockey player on Long Island, N.Y., he didn’t lace up the ice skates until moving to New Hampshire at age 12. He excelled in junior hockey clubs across his new home, played for his junior varsity and varsity high school teams and club hockey teams in college.
“My dad would drive us across New Hampshire and New England in heavy snow and horrible winter weather so I could participate in travel hockey. I was hooked,” Rigas said.
In 1997, his great-uncle, John Rigas, bought the National Hockey League‘s Buffalo Sabres, further fueling his love for the sport.
“One of my favorite times growing up was when the family from New Hampshire would charter a bus trip each year where we would go … over to the game and sit in the Sabres owner’s box. We saw Wayne Gretzky play against the Sabres when he played for the New York Rangers,” Rigas said.
Last fall, Rigas was a forward for the Assassins, a team in Palm Beach Skate Zone’s C Major League that won the championship. Rigas found a home playing center for the Rockets, who stand at 4-5 with 8 points halfway through the Spring 2014 C Major League.
The championship meant a lot to Rigas.
“I never thought I’d play another hockey game after starting to drink; at that time, drinking derailed my hockey career,” he said.
Comments are closed.