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 The
Goalie Gene
by Andrew Goldstein
July 2003
My father's father, Saul Goldstein, was born in Montreal, Canada from
two Polish immigrants, Sandor and Miriam. Sandor was a strict father
who stressed hard work for his seven children. Saul had such an incredible
passion for sports that he used to sneak out of the house to meet up
with friends when his father believed him to be completing his chores.
With his six siblings covering for him at times, Saul would play hockey
with the other boys. In his teenage years, my grandfather excelled as
a goaltender in the days when goalies would stuff magazines into their
stockings for shin pads, decades before Jacques Plante invented the
mask. My father keeps a picture of Saul in his goalie equipment winning
his league championship at seventeen years of age.
 When
my sister was seven years old, she put a catching glove on one hand
and a blocker in the other. She was a natural goalie. From her first
skating days, it was clear she was meant for athletics. But when she
chose to turn in her hockey stick for the thicker paddle of a goalie,
she brought back the memory of her grandfather's playing days that ended
after high school. Her first game in seventh grade, she started for
the varsity at Milton Academy and was one of the best players on the
team. I watched Lauren win numerous awards, and I even went to Canada
and Finland to see her put on the United States jersey. I could not
have been more proud to watch my sister, the goalie, show everyone her
talents. For my father, it must have meant even more, to feel his daughter
carrying on what his father once told him about.
My brother Bryan is the oldest of the three children in my family.
He picked up lacrosse in seventh grade and became a goalie the next
year. He was a star in high school and played at Amherst College. My
parents knew the unfortunate experience of raising goalies as well as
anyone, and they were great at it. They were excited after the good
games, supportive after the bad games, and most importantly, always
there. So when I started playing lacrosse and expressed my interest
in being a goaltender, they knew this would not be anything new for
them but they must have been asking, "why us?"
 I
started playing goalie full-time in eighth grade and by freshman year
I was starting on the varsity. While I continued to play defense in
ice hockey, I was a goalie at heart. My parents were now the proud owners
of three career goaltenders. A lot of people say that goalies are crazy.
You would have to be crazy to enjoy balls or pucks thrown at you upwards
of ninety miles an hour. Well, if it's true and we are crazy, then it
must be in our blood. My grandfather used to sneak out of his house
to throw on the pads and now I get to run down the field in front of
thousands of fans in the Carrier Dome. All the while, my parents are
watching from the sidelines knowing that they will never escape the
life of a goalie. My father, Irwin, played hockey at Brown, and my mother,
Sue, never played organized sports after high school, but I know that
they must have been carriers of the goalie gene.
A Glance at Our Guest: Andrew Goldstein
Andrew Goldstein is a rising junior at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
To learn more about Andrew, check out his 2003 Who's
Hot in College profile or his Goalie
of the Week interview.
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