Hockey moms must be tough

Consider the various cool terms vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin could have used in describing herself to Republican Party convention delegates Wednesday night:

Moose-hunter.

Political trailblazer.

And the best one: former journalist.

Instead, she settled with obvious pride on "just your average hockey mom." She then adorned that title with a joke on how you tell the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull. "Lipstick," she said to loud laughter in the arena.

What, you might ask, is your average hockey mom? Is there such a thing? Are they any different from soccer moms or Little League moms? Do they really snarl?

Our search ended at the Honda Center, where Rosanna Sitzman is a financial analyst by day for the Anaheim Ducks but the round-the-clock mother of 9-year-old Jack. When we say round-the-clock, we're not kidding. She's been at rinks as early as 5:30 a.m. for Jack's games.

Sitzman caught parts of Palin's speech but heard the hockey mom reference on the news Thursday morning. "The first thing that came to my mind was, 'Yeah, hockey moms are tough,' " Sitzman says.

But not tough like bruisers. Not tough like tobacco-chewers or shot-and-beer drinkers.

"We're tough because when your kids get hurt -- and they do get hurt a lot on the rink, especially when they're older -- we have to be tough about it," Sitzman says. "We don't run out there and baby them."

Frankly, sometimes a boy just has to man up. In a sport where there aren't always a lot of extra players, sacrifices must be made.

"There was one instance," Sitzman says, "where two of our players had a 102-degree fever, and the moms said, 'Oh, take the Motrin, you'll be fine in two hours, and play.' "

Nobody ever said hockey is for sissies.

And there's something else. Hockey moms don't drop the kids off at practice and then disappear. That'd be too easy.

"We sit there the whole practice," Sitzman says. "We don't just leave our kids."

Why? "For me, I still want to be there," she says. "I say we're tough, but if he gets hurt in practice, I want to be there."

All youth sports seem more time-consuming these days, but Sitzman says that's especially true with hockey.

Her son plays at the "Squirt" level for the Junior Ducks club in Anaheim. The season runs from August to March and can take the boys anywhere from San Diego to Bakersfield or, during tournament time, anywhere in the country. It's not unusual to play as many as 40 games a season, counting preseason and tournaments. Practices and games typically are on the weekends and sometimes are scheduled before most of us wake up.