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Former player hits the ice again

In Partnership WithHKAHC & HKAIH

It’s just another day of on ice practice for the HKFYG Community Team Sports players, but for Ricco Ng, today is the day he steps back on the ice in full hockey gear after putting ice hockey down for 2 years.

In the 2 years that Ricco stepped away from ice hockey, he went and enrolled in the Artiste Training Course at one of Hong Kong’s largest TV stations, Television Broadcasts Limited.  After graduating from the course, Ricco went on to become a full time artiste at TVB; he was one of the main casts in the 8pm sitcom that just recently concluded.

Ricco met with Coach Barry at the rink, where they had a chance to catch up and Ricco revealed how ice hockey has influenced him to become the person that he is today.  Ricco joined his first ice hockey league in the 2011-12 Hong Kong School Ice Hockey League organized by the Hong Kong Amateur Hockey Club and have since then become inseparable from his team mates. 

“I still remember when we first started training as a team and you practiced with us, shooting pucks at us and we needed to block the pucks, it felt good that I was able to block the puck the first time, but I missed the second time and the puck hit me, I knew then that I needed to work a lot harder because it hurts getting hit by a puck shot by ex-NHLer Barry Beck!”  Ricco recalls.

During his days in the Hong Kong School Ice Hockey League, Ricco fought with his team and won the 2nd runner up title in 2012, advancing to the 1st runner up title in 2013 and had a really close game with long time champions, PLK No. 1 Cheung Wing Hing College, again winning the 1st runner up title in 2014.  “During my time on the team, I’ve never won any Championship Gold medals, but it was the friendships and achievements that we made as a team that stayed in my memory.” said Ricco.

Other than bonding with teammates and enjoying his time on ice, he also learned about ice hockey gear and their importance to the safety of the game, “I learned to be responsible for my own gear and how to take care of them, because if I don’t have all my gear or if they are broken and cannot protect me while I’m on the ice, Coaches won’t allow me to go on ice!  Bit by bit I’ve become a more responsible player as I learn to keep my gear in their best condition and also watch out for others on my team.  It’s not just ice hockey skills that I had to master, but also self care skills and how to take care of each other on the team.”

Barry agrees that ice hockey is not just a sport and each player learns many other skills while playing ice hockey.  “Your passion in the sport makes you become more involved and you want to achieve the best in every aspect of the game, on and off the ice, this good habit also leads to other professions in your life later on”.

Ricco shared that another advantage of playing ice hockey is that because the game is so fast, players need to make decisions and act immediately, this quick response training on the ice also helped him with coping with the fast pace of life in Hong Kong.                    

It’s been a while since Ricco has hit the ice in full gear, and this day he was practicing shots with another Community Team Sports Program participant, Lily Luk, just shooting goals and getting familiar with the game again.  He is grateful for all the amazing memories and friends that ice hockey brought him but for now he will continue working as a full time artiste and hopes to occasionally hit the ice to feel the speed of the game again.  “Sure, join us at the rink any time!” said Barry.

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