Lukas Znosko

RWS 1301
Ms. Salas
10-18-15
Discourse Communities of Hockey in El Paso

Many people are unaware of this, but we all belong to a discourse community in one way
or another. Whether it is at work or on a sports team, we all belong to one, or even a few of them!
The thing is, many people are actually not informed of what a discourse community is. Quite
simply put, a discourse community is a group of individuals that communicate together in order
to reach a common goal. Due to me being a hockey player, I realized that I had a good insight
into the world and community of hockey players, and decided to research the discourse
communities of the El Paso Rhinos, which I once played for, and the UTEP Miner Hockey Club,
of which I am a member now. The basis of my research was to understand how both teams
communicate together. Is there variation in the way they communicate amongst themselves, or
are there many commonalities in the way both teams are run?
According to John Swales, a professor of linguistics and co director of the Michigan
Corpus of Academic Spoken English at the University of Michigan, a discourse community is
one that shares six very important characteristics that help them achieve a common goal. The
first of these characteristics is that they do, in fact, have an agreed upon set of goals that they are
all intending to reach together. Two other characteristic is that throughout the group, there must
be a way of communication, and include different genres to ensure they are all on the same page.
These communities use these means of communication to offer feedback, which continues to
enforce the idea of these communities reaching a common goal. One of the most important
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characteristics in these communities is the special and technical terminology that is used in the
community. Also known as lexis, this terminology is what sets the community apart from any
other and makes it unique. It is also effective in keeping an outside individual from easily
gaining access into the community. This causes the individual to have to assimilate them self into
the community. The last characteristic of a discourse community is that members must be
competent in what is going on in the community. Theses characteristics all form together to
enforce, in the best way possible, the ideal way for a community to function and work in order.
As a way to discover how communities function, I chose two that are very important to
me, and two that are similar, but also very different. The first community I chose to research is
the UTEP Hockey Club. It is a first year club that started as a dream of the expansion of hockey
in El Paso. The club has gathered players from all over the country, and even gathered players
locally to make this happen. The days of these players are very similar. Every day, after classes,
the players show up for practice. They first start by pulling up to the rink and get into the locker
room. They get dressed quickly and head out onto the ice to start their practice. It is intense and
lasts for an hour and a half. After practice, many players spend time on the ice working on skills
while others head back to the locker room. After practice they all shower up and leave.
Throughout these practices, and especially in the locker room, There are many jokes exchanged.
There is a lot of slang and curse words that can be heard whether out of laughter or frustration
for making a bad play. The banter between the players is friendly, making sure everyone knows
that even though they are getting picked on, it is out of nothing more then a good time and fun. It
is a very accepting group as the players understand that they are all a part of doing something
good for the school. Whether its players who have played semi-pro level or are just learning the
sport, there is a lot of cohesion and unity, even though some new players find it tough to
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understand hockey players' sense of humors, and "weird" antics. It is very important to the club
to have this common form of communication through jokes, because as Swales' characteristics
state, this communication in the group is what drives the team to stay together, and achieve their
common goal. They must all stay in tact, and do all the right things to ensure success in their
games over the weekends. The writing done in the group is kept fairly simple. The genres,
which Swales says is important in all discourse communities, further enhance the way the way
that the members communicate. Jobs for the week are written out on a board for cleaning the
locker room, picking up pucks, bringing the nets off the ice so the Zamboni can clean the ice, etc.
The club also uses a "group-me" app to communicate practice times and meeting times. Other
forms of these genres for communication include the coach drawing up plays and drills on board,
travel forms for away games, posters to advertise games, and even game tickets. With these
genres in place, the general public, and most importantly, the members, always know what is
going on, and are always on top of what needs to be done in succeeding to put on a show for the
fans, but also to win games. After speaking to Jan Dam, the president of the club, I asked him for
a few different terms that are used in hockey. These included forecheck, backcheck, and icing.
When asked about these select terms he said, "Forecheck is when the player puts the puck in the
offensive zone and chases down the other teams defensemen to get them to give the puck back.
Backcheck is when you have to hurry back to your defensive zone after the opposing team has
made it out of their end. Icing is when you dont cross the red line on the ice before putting the
puck in the defensive zone. These are important things in hockey." As Swales stated, these lexis
are crucial to the effective communication between the community. These are a few of the very
many terms used by hockey players to help not only teach the newer players the game, but also

used to help the veteran hockey players communicate what needs to be improved on in the game
to win, which is the ultimate goal.
The second discourse community I chose to research was the El Paso Rhinos. It is the
team that I played with before I started my college career with UTEP. The Rhinos gather players
from all over the world to give them a place to showcase their abilities in front of scouts to earn
either a pro contract, or college scholarship. The lifestyle is way more rigorous as the players do
nothing but play hockey and train. It's a lifestyle that many people are not able to keep up with.
Every day the players show up for practice at 6:30 AM. They get dressed quickly and head out
onto the ice to start their practice at 7 AM. It is intense and lasts for 3 hours. A couple fights
break out as the players know they can be traded at any moment. After practice, many players
spend time on the ice working on skills while others head back to the locker room. After practice
they sit down for what they court. They do it once a week, in which every player has the
opportunity to "fine" another player. These fines can range from someone slipping in a drill to a
foolish act off ice. It is a fun way for the players to make fun of each other, and also have some
money to go towards shampoo and what not. They later go on to have team work outs at their
training center. These players also do not do much writing. Other then writing out the work out
groups and times that they will be going to the gym, the only writing being done is the fine
money that they will be collecting. Even the coach does not draw out the drills. The practices are
all kept very similar, with players knowing the drills from the first day that they started
practicing. It keeps the flow of practice and keeps the intensity and pace high. The Rhinos
communication is huge to the outside world. Some genres that the Rhinos use are mainly by
advertisement. They do an outstanding job of providing the public with information on the
games through billboards, social media, ticket sales, and posters. It effectively brings the fans
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into the community as the Rhinos are big on giving back to El Paso. These genres, again
according to Swales are necessary in providing the Rhinos the opportunity of achieving their
goal of selling out their games, and offering hockey to the fans. The games are a mad house.
Fans yelling at the opposing goalies, flashing lights, train horns all get everyone excited. It is
also what gives the players that extra motivation to achieve their goals of bringing a
championship back to El Paso. Another striking observation was the way they interacted
together. There is a rather large divide between the Europeans and Americans in this community.
The language barrier is definitely a factor, and even with players filling different roles on the
team, there is a lot of competitive tension throughout the locker room and on the ice. The
interesting part was, that this divide was what brought the players together. It is what kept them
honest on and off the ice, and pushed each other to a common goal. To understand each other,
they used lexis of almost something close to sign language. They'll use hand gestures and broken
English or any way they can figure out to most effectively communicate the way they are
playing, or tips on what to improve on. It is not the ideal way that Swales would have
encouraged communication within a community, but they certainly all make the best of it in the
community and understand one another. This communication method and feedback to one
another on their play is beneficial, according to Swales, because it keeps everyone focused on
their goal of winning. Because for anyone that knows anything about Rhino hockey, one thing
they stress is that they dont take losing lightly. This is another aspect of the junior hockey
lifestyle. It is these players chance to make it somewhere, and they will fight for and do whatever
they need to get it done.
Through the research of these two discourse communities, I believe that the biggest
difference of these communities that is evident is the cohesion and unity. With the UTEP hockey
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community, the players are a lot more patient and understanding of each other. It is a place to
learn, have fun, and have the opportunity to make the school proud by preforming against teams
like Texas State and Texas Tech, while the Rhino community is aimed at the individual to make it
to the next step. The communication is similar, though some of the Rhinos were a bit more
anxious to communicate with their fists. It is a beautiful part of the sport, and is comes with a
world of its own. Both communities express this love of hockey, and both aim to bring hockey to
the city of El Paso.

Works Cited
Swales, John 1990. Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, selected 4547, 5260. The Concept of Discourse Community,
467-479.