Release #: Vol. 84, No. 10
December 01, 2015

Our Stories: Drop the Puck

Hawaiian, Virgin America Pilots Face Off

By John Perkinson, Staff Writer

What do airline pilots and ice hockey have in common? More than you think. With a handful of former National Hockey League (NHL) players as ALPA members, it’s no surprise that teams of airline pilots gathered to face off in the first-ever Inter-ALPA Hockey Classic.

In back-to-back games this fall, the pilots who play for the Hawaiian Airlines Jets edged out the Virgin America team to win the tournament held at the Las Vegas Ice Center.

“The first game was entertaining,” said Capt. Rod Buskas (Hawaiian), the Jets co-captain who is both a Hawaiian pilot negotiator and former NHL defenseman. “We were behind, down 4–0 after two periods. We must have been on Hawaiian time,” joked Buskas, who once held the Pittsburgh Penguins’ record for career-high penalty minutes. (Which means he spent a lot of time in the penalty box.) However, the Jets powered back to tie the game and won 5–4 with a dramatic sudden-death overtime goal.

In the second game, it was the Hawaiian team that got off to an early lead. Although the Virgin America team started to make a comeback, “we just couldn’t quite close the deal,” said F/O Mark Nahan (Virgin America), an A320 pilot and the grandson of noted former Los Angeles sportscaster Stu Nahan. Again, the Hawaiian pilots were victorious, winning 5–4.

“It was nice to get out there and pass the puck around with some guys who’ve played pretty decent hockey in their lives and just have a good time,” said Capt. Larry Payne (Hawaiian), his pilot group’s Master Executive Council (MEC) vice chairman and a former member of the Arizona State hockey team. “The sport is a great team-building exercise, and there’s tremendous camaraderie among the players.”

Members of the Hawaiian Airlines Jets and the Virgin America hockey teams take the ice at the Las Vegas Ice Center.

The Hawaiian pilots established a team about 15 years ago, initially playing tournaments like the Microsoft Hockey Challenge in Seattle, Wash., which benefits the Ronald McDonald House charities. Over time the group disbanded—until just recently, when Payne and Buskas started talking with some of their fellow members about how they missed playing the sport. In short order, the Hawaiian Jets were back on the ice.

Meanwhile, F/O Jeff Sharples (Virgin America), a former Detroit Red Wings defenseman, told his buddy Buskas that Virgin America had organized a team. Primarily made up of pilots—but also consisting of other employees, family members, and friends—the Virgin America hockey team has participated in events like the U.S. Pond Hockey Championship, played on Lake Nokomis just north of Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport. Sharples put Buskas in touch with Nahan, and preparations for the first Inter-ALPA Hockey Classic were set in motion.

Nahan said he and F/O Mark Esposito (Virgin America) had discussed organizing a Virgin America team for some time. Management liked the idea and provided funds to help them get started. After playing the Jets in Las Vegas, the Virgin America team has since traveled to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif, where, in late November, they played a local L.A. team following an L.A. Kings/Chicago Blackhawks game.

Looking back on the Inter-ALPA Hockey Classic, Esposito—the son of Chicago Blackhawks legend Tony Esposito—said, “Hockey can be a pretty nasty sport at times, but this was a gentlemen’s game with lots of competition. We played hard and had a great time.”

“It was really good hockey, and this is exactly what we want to do with other teams,” said Nahan. Both teams are interested in finding new opponents and have talked about organizing a U.S. or North American pilot hockey tournament. Rumor has it that Delta, Jazz Aviation, and other ALPA pilot groups have a few hockey players who might just be up to the challenge.

A few weeks after the Inter-ALPA Hockey Classic, during ALPA’s fall Executive Board meeting—Virgin America pilots’ first board meeting—Payne announced in the the spirit of good-natured rivalry that the Hawaiian pilots had already welcomed the Virgin America pilots “by kicking their butts in two games” earlier that month.

No doubt Nahan, Esposito, and the rest of the Virgin America team are itching for a rematch, tentatively scheduled to take place in Honolulu in September 2016.

This article is from the December issue of Air Line Pilot magazine, the Official Journal of the Air Line Pilots Association, International—a monthly publication for all ALPA members.

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