was like watching ducks fly for the first time." "But you'd be shocked: Because they played on such crappy ice all the time, they were able to get up to speed quickly. "Two of our players had never had their skates sharpened," Ramadan said of his national club team. The rinks are what one might expect them to be: each located within a mall in Cairo, each about 25 percent the size of an NHL rink (or about 300 meters long), with no Zambonis or even skate sharpeners. Ramadan's parents lived in a suburb of Cairo, and the family's apartment was across the street from one of the three ice rinks in Egypt. Egypt has a population of 98.9 million people but only three ice rinks, none of them regulation size and all of them housed within shopping malls in Cairo. The legacy of hockey in Egypt is one of humble beginnings. We're doing it for the legacy impact," he said. When it comes to a game at the pyramids, it's not simply for the stunning visuals and novelty of the stunt. So we staged the Himalayan game to bring more interest to their developing program, but the long-lasting effect was to have a regulation-sized rink in the country." So we were able to procure the boards, ship them over and donate them to the program. "The motivation behind this is that India does not have a regulation-sized rink in its entire country. "Our pilot program was in the Indian Himalayas," Ruszala said. In places such as, for example, the Himalayan region of Ladakh, India, where The Hockey Foundation helped facilitate a world record for the highest-altitude hockey game, at 14,340 feet above sea level. The Hockey Foundation is a New York-based nonprofit organization that seeks to support and grow the sport in emerging communities. The last game he organized made the Guinness Book of World Records. Ruszala would know about playing hockey in iconic places. That would sweep the globe," said Rob Ruszala of The Hockey Foundation. "Hockey being played in front of the pyramids. Other events have been held at the pyramids - everything from a David Guetta rave to an international squash tournament.
![stick ranger pyramid stick ranger pyramid](https://www.abc.net.au/cm/rimage/8580210-3x2-xlarge.jpg)
We're trying to target December or January in the event we can do an ice rink because it's cold enough," said Ramadan, who said several sign-offs from the government are required before the game can happen.
#Stick ranger pyramid full
As of now, it's going to be synthetic, for budget reasons, but we're trying to get the sponsorships to do a full ice rink. That is why it is playing a game at the pyramids. In other words, Hockey Egypt has to get these gatekeepers' attention. Egypt Ice Hockey's sweaters sport one of hockey's most memorable logos: the image of a pharaoh wearing a "Friday The 13th"-style goalie mask. And then we can put in an application," Ramadan said.
![stick ranger pyramid stick ranger pyramid](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9c/54/6b/9c546b5481722a524819bd1ee1f35e97.jpg)
"Basically, all I need now is a letter from my sports minister that says, 'Egypt Ice Hockey represents the ice hockey interests of Egypt.' No money involved. To be granted membership, Ramadan has to prove the program's viability, relevance and capacity for growth.
![stick ranger pyramid stick ranger pyramid](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000127867061-abl249-t500x500.jpg)
It's another step forward for the nascent hockey program in Egypt, which is seeking an endorsement from the nation's governing sports bodies as its official national hockey team, which is necessary for application to the IIHF. "This tournament is a coming-out party for all these teams on an international stage," Ramadan said. It's a tournament that seeks to spotlight the hockey programs of Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, the only nation among the group currently recognized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Ramadan is the president of Egypt Ice Hockey as well as a captain for its national club team, which will compete in the first Arab Club Cup Championship beginning April 3 in Abu Dhabi. In essence, Sameh Ramadan isn't trying to bring hockey to the Egyptian pyramids. There's an ancestral reason for this: Ancient Egyptians created a game in which sticks were used to smack around a semicircle created from papyrus fibers wrapped in leather. Ignore the desert garb, and it almost looks like they're taking a hockey faceoff.
![stick ranger pyramid stick ranger pyramid](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/89/11/f9/8911f9f944bf766ce95dc7bbb87e3205.jpg)
They're pointing them at the ground, crossing one over the other. They depict two men, each holding a long palm-tree branch, with slightly curved ends. The hieroglyphics can be found adorning the tombs at Egypt's ancient Beni Hassan burial site.