Bowling Green State University Athletics
The Language of Hockey
November 06, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 6, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - From the amateur level to college, the journey for most athletes to reaching one's utmost goals and dreams of making it pro is filled with challenges and obstacles, whatever it may be, that may deter one from staying adamant in his or her pursuit.
For one BGSU athlete, the pursuit of an American Dream has been all that, but with one more challenging barrier to overcome that has yet to stand in his way.
Tomas Petruska, a sophomore forward for the BGSU hockey team, has come a long way in his life, from his home nearly 5,000 miles from Bowling Green in Presov, Slovakia, to his success in overcoming the language barrier in the United States.
Like most other athletes who have had to adjust and learn to communicate with new teammates and coaches while transitioning, Petruska has had to work even harder to do just that, only he's had to do it learning a new language.
Petruska studied the English language for 4 months when he arrived in the States with the help of a book he recalled being titled "Easy English", given to him by the coach of his first club.
"At first all I could say was `I am hungry' and `Where is the bathroom'," Petruska said.
"It was the worst four months of my life."
Beyond the basics, however, Petruska says that applying the language every day through asking questions and engaging deeply in locker room conversation between players and coaches have allowed him to learn more quickly and efficiently.
Petruska says that it is no different at BGSU, where he still continues to expand and hone his English speaking ability.
"It's tough every once and a while," Petruska said.
"I just have to listen a lot and that gives me understanding of many things, especially things I need to know about the team and what they want from me," he said.
Fortunately for his new teammates at BGSU, Petruska had progressed enough with his English and become borderline fluent when he joined the Falcons in 2006, where he made an immediate impact for the Falcons.
Last season Petruska scored a pair of game-winning goals including the clincher with 35 seconds remaining against the ninth-ranked Michigan Wolverines. The other was a go-ahead score, the first of his collegiate career, helping the Falcons rally to beat Providence. He would later finish the season leading all Falcon freshman with 17 points, recording eight goals and nine assists.
Prior to coming to BGSU, Petruska played for three junior teams, most recently for the Cleveland Barons of the North American Hockey League (NAHL) in 2005-2006, preceded by the Waterloo Black Hawks and Des Moines Buccaneers of the United States Hockey League (USHL) in 2004-2005.
Prior to that, Petruska played internationally for the Team Slovakia World Juniors, where he would ultimately spark the attention of USHL scouts and be selected among five of his countrymen to play for the league's Waterloo (Iowa) club.
Petruska took full advantage of the opportunity to compete in North America, where hockey is a major sport in the U.S. and Canada and scholarships for college are more available and also a stepping stone to the pros.
"Hockey is just a business," Petruska said of his decision to seek college scholarship.
"I have the chance to play hockey and get a degree the same time," he said.
Petruska says that an education is his primary focus at BGSU, though his goal remains that he would like to continue to play hockey after college. His dream is to one day follow in the skates of the many athletes who have furthered their careers professionally in the NHL.
Though gaining some personal spotlight in hopes to follow in his pursuit won't be easy.
"It comes with helping the team," Petruska said. "The scoring and getting attention will come with that."
"There is a lot of great history here," Petruska said. "I just want to help the team win."
The prominence of the BGSU hockey program was just one of several factors in Petruska's decision to choose BGSU among the many schools who sought his talent, though his ultimate reasoning was atypical to say the least.
"This school was the closest," he said, in relation to his previous tenure in Cleveland.
"I was just tired of moving."
