Being a hockey mom is a lot like having a second job, except the hours are long and the pay is miserable.

But the perks are pretty good.

The hockey moms within the Albert Lea Hockey Association are a tight-knit group because they spend much of their time together at the rink.

“You have your regular family and you have your hockey family,” said Cathy Purdie, who serves as the treasurer for Albert Lea hockey, in addition to filling shifts at the concession stand and feeding hungry young players during tournaments.

With the hockey season now going for nearly the entire year, the bonds formed at the rink tend to last and families forge symbiotic relationships.

“Whatever team you’re on, you tend to be with those families for the winter,” said Barb Pulley, who has three children in the program. “It’s kind of your social life. The one thing about hockey is it’s a pretty social sport.”

The social aspect often involves finding rides for children to and from games when parents are unable to make games. With many families having multiple children involved on different teams, having someone to share rides with becomes vitally important.

“The great thing with having all of us together is a lot of times we can’t be different places at one time because most of our kids travel and they are on different teams,” Pulley said. “It’s very nice to call other mothers and say, ‘Hey, can you take my kid to Rochester this weekend.’”

Tracie Bellrichard has three children involved with hockey and her husband coaches, so finding a way to get each child to a game can be difficult.

“We try to make sure one parent is at each kid’s game,” she said. “It doesn’t always work out, but nine times out of 10, we’ll have one parent there.”

In addition to the normal tasks of bringing the kids to practice and staying on top of game and tournament schedules, a number of the moms also serve as team moms.

Many coaches like to have team moms so they don’t have to worry about having to call every parent about practice, game changes or any other pertinent information that needs to be shared.

Don’t be fooled, the constant stream of communication can be costly work. Tiffany Syverson, a team mom, exceeded her text messaging limit trying to keep everyone informed.

The team mom assumes the responsibility of informing parents of cancellations, providing driving directions to away games, arranging rides for players, as well as a laundry list of other tasks.

The calendars for each mother are packed with hockey-related activities and normally appear like a rainbow on paper with the color-coding.

“We often laugh about the color-coded calendars that keep us organized and going in the right direction,” Purdie said.

It’s a lot of time spent in cars, but it has also become one of the ways parents and children communicate.

“The windshield time that we spend going to practices and games is priceless,” Purdie said.

The hockey moms within the Albert Lea Hockey Association fill many needs for the program and help do the thankless jobs.

During any hockey game the moms are at the concession stand, working shifts to keep youth hockey coffers well endowed. Each mother is required to work 10, two-hour shifts for each child in the hockey program. For some it means a lot of time taking money, popping popcorn and pedaling pizza to fans.

Not only are they serving the food, they are often preparing it for the kids to eat, especially during tournaments. A few weeks ago Albert Lea hosted a squirts tournament and the moms helped put together a potluck throughout the day so the kids would be fed.

“It helps save with costs,” Bellrichard said. “The kids aren’t running to the concession stand every five minutes or to you every five minutes for a dollar or two for something to eat. This way there’s food and pop and beverages for the kids back here.”

There’s no doubt that hockey is one of the most expensive sports to participate in, but the time commitment and travel also has its cost. Bellrichard said that her son calculated how much the family spent on hockey as part of a math project.

“All the games we had last year — so it was like 120 games between the three boys traveling — I think it was between 8,000 and 10,000 miles in travel,” Bellrichard said. “I can’t remember what the total cost was for the year, maybe $12,000, from the start of hockey to the end of the hockey season.”

Hockey brings both the parents and the children together and introduces them to new friends. Often times those hockey friends will go out of their way to help each other.

Bellrichard’s truck broke down in Rochester after a tournament, but the hockey caravan was there to help tow the truck back to the hotel and provide food and drink for the family.

“Those things happen and we were fortunate someone was there to help us out,” Bellrichard said. “That’s just the little things. People are willing to help you out at anytime.”