It’s difficult to claim that ice hockey is one of the more accessible sports to play. The cost of basic gear, including skates, pads, a helmet, and a stick, adds up fast. Renting rink space is a recurring expense. Traveling to games factors in the costs of lodging, meals, and transportation. And then, even if you can somehow afford all that, there’s the fact that you must already live in an area with an accessible rink, women lack the same opportunities in the sport, and learning how to skate – not exactly a simple feat – must come first.
Luckily for Swarthmore students, none of these factors matter, except for, perhaps, the last one. And this issue of learning to skate is only a problem until the moment you decide to start, a choice that is naturally followed by attending a Motherpuckers, or MOPO, skating session.
Formally, MOPO is a student intramural ice hockey organization. Every Thursday and Sunday night, you can find them at Springfield Ice Rink. And luckily for those of us who aren’t already familiar with hockey, or skating, according to the co-presidents themselves, already experienced hockey players definitely don’t get the most out of MOPO.
Co-president Jano Vasquez-Jaffe ’26 couldn’t skate when he first joined. Now, he humbly says he’s “decent.”
“I would say everybody has an amazing time, and if I had to say which group enjoyed it more, it would be the less experienced people,” said Avi Berman ’26, the second co-president. “Because most people don’t get the opportunity to go skate, and definitely most people don’t get the opportunity to go play hockey. It’s a really amazing opportunity that we have at Swarthmore to introduce people to hockey.”
A typical MOPO session begins with a meet-up in Parrish basement at 10 p.m. to grab supplies, all of which are provided by the school. Then students take a short van ride to the ice rink, getting on the ice around 10:45 p.m. Ice time starts with ten to twenty minutes of free skate. As Vasquez-Jaffe said, the exact timing depends on the day, and Berman’s mood – in lieu of a formal buzzer, Berman pounds his stick against the boards – before everyone circles up for introductions. After gathering, skaters break into groups depending on the number of attendees, and each enacts its own scrimmage. Typically, it’s two groups, divided by skill level. Ice time usually ends with free skating. Sometimes, if newer members want to learn a skill, more experienced players will lead the group in a drill.
“Occasionally we’ll add rules to the game,” Vasquez-Jaffe said.
Berman described a specific occasion when everyone played in one group, with each skill level earning different amounts of points for making a goal: “It got pretty competitive, we were really trying to pass, and it was a blast.”
Some, like Berman, have been skating all their lives, and this is evident to onlookers. Others, like Vasquez-Jaffe, are quite skilled in their own right. And then there are those like myself, who are, to borrow from an archived 1982 Phoenix article about MOPO, “grossly incompetent.”
It seems that MOPO has existed long before 1982. “This year, at the fall club fair, a freshman came up to me and said her grandpa was part of this club or founded this club and he graduated in the seventies,” Berman said.
Berman and Vasquez-Jaffe are only the newest leaders of the group. Each has had a different experience with skating and ice hockey at large. Vasquez-Jaffe started skating by joining MOPO at the very beginning of his freshman year; Berman started back in kindergarten, first attending MOPO in November of his freshman year.
They each have their own reasons why they keep coming back, as well. “I think I’ve made a lot of friends through MOPO for sure,” Vasquez-Jaffe said. “Good friends, too. It’s a great community.”
“I mean I love playing hockey, I’ve always loved playing hockey,” Berman said. “I’ve only played very competitive hockey throughout my life, and so it’s almost better to do MOPO hockey, because you’re just playing a game you love with lots of friends and it’s a very welcoming environment.”
The current co-presidents were lucky enough to have great role models within MOPO very early on. They were most impacted by Ryosei Okayama ’24, or Ryo, who was a junior when they were freshmen.
“[Ryo] just really cares, you ask him a question and he really takes the time to answer it for you,” Vasquez-Jaffe said. “If you ask him something about skating he’ll show you, he’ll take the time, and just because you’re not great at skating he won’t write you off.”
Berman added, “I take a lot of inspiration from Ryo for running the club, for trying to make it a really welcoming place to people.” The co-presidents also highlight Jennifer He ’24, who put MOPO in contact with the Bi-Co hockey team, the Lame Ducks, as well as Quinn Okabayashi ‘23, who ran the club two years ago.
MOPO recently joined forces with the Lame Ducks in early March for a Sunday night skating session at the Havertown rink. Though the Skatium was not quite as cozy as Swarthmore’s own charming venue, it was a very welcoming environment, with the skating groups made up of a mix of MOPO and Bi-Co members.
Similarly to regular sessions, the night started with free skating before three flights of skill levels alternately played scrimmages. According to Berman and Vasquez-Jaffe, the night was a success, and a great deal of fun.
“It was really great to get to meet new people, and they definitely share our goal of having lots of people get to play hockey,” Berman said. Though Vasquez-Jaffe mentioned a little bit of a skill difference between the Swarthmore and Bi-Co groups, no scored match was held between the two, so it is as yet unclear whether this is the case.
The co-presidents mostly emphasize one underlying idea: that you, or us – all of us – should come to hockey. After all, it’s open to the entire student body.
“Come to hockey,” Berman said. “Even if you just want to skate, even if you absolutely don’t want to play hockey.”
“There’s no obligation to play hockey,” Vasquez-Jaffe added.
“And people will teach you to skate,” Berman said.
Berman added, “It’s a beautiful thing to see people come as freshmen and totally not know how to skate. I’ve seen Jano improve over the past three years, and now he’s good.” (“I can do backwards crossovers,” Vasquez-Jaffe piped in. “Yeah, he can do backwards crossovers.”)
If you’re still on the fence, Berman makes a very convincing argument that skating is “the best skill in the entire world,” an argument that may or may not be rooted in its applicability to a first date scenario. If you want more details, or if you’d like to apply this knowledge to your own life, you’ll have to pay a visit to MOPO. Maybe I’ll see you there.
If you would like to learn more or join the mailing list, email aberman2@swarthmore.edu!
