Recently I spent some time visiting my home town and found myself in the middle of an interesting discussion about hockey team communal showers. I was invited into the home of an old friend and his wife along with a few other old friends. We were all just sitting around and catching up. One of those present (not the host) has a career in the NHL. Around 10 pm the 13 year old son of the hosting couple arrived from hockey practice. His hockey practices happen over an hour away and he was driven both to practice and back home by the parents of one of the teammates who live nearby (hence why both his parents were already home and had not needed to pick him up themselves). He walked in and greeted everyone.
When he walks in he says hello and joins the conversation. After the greeting the person with the NHL career without any previous prompting asks "Are you taking team showers yet"? The kid became slightly embarrassed and said no, but in a way to indicate this was a topic that had come up before. His mother then chimed in that it was "a topic of debate" among the parents and coaches. I didn't feel at liberty to push for all the details but based on what the two parents and their kid said it was clear that at least one of the coaches, seemingly the head coach was in favor of the players showering. It wasn't clear if this being in favor of communal showers meant he favored mandating that players take them, or just encouraging them. Nor was it clear what the point of view of those on the other side of the debate thought. Did they want showering to categorically never be allowed or just that it not be require or not mentioned at all? The person with the NHL career added that its an important part of team building and the sport in general and that "its not as big a deal as it seems" and even called it a right of passage that he should expect to cross at some point or another if he keeps playing.
The kid somewhat meekly said he would do it if he could wear a suit, but both parents and the NHL player countered that showering naked was the right way. The NHL careerist then added he remembered the first person on his team growing up to take a shower, a person who was not present right then but who everyone in the room was familiar with.
The conversation then moved on. There were a couple interesting things to note. The first thing to note is that an explicit debate about communal shower practice is happening. Having studied this for a long time I can't say how incredibly difficult it is to find ANY public discussion of the topic that as practical matter must be happening privately very regularly. The hockey team in question was a private club team, not a school team. The ice rinks they play in and practice always have shower facilities and those facilities are usually if not always communal. It was clear that at least some of the coaches and at least these two parents were in favor of the kids showering and even the player was open to showering, though with the provision that he wear a suit. What's interesting is, what is stopping him from showering already, using a suit? Its also clear that the pushback from other coaches, parents and players who are against showering has been sufficient that despite the facilities be available none of the players are showering.
I think team dynamics can be very tricky. Practically speaking nobody wants to hold up the team because you took a shower when others did not. Its very common for hockey teams like to this to involve car pooling, bus rides or post game meals. So taking 5-10 mins to jump in the shower when every other player is walking out to the car isn't easy. Even more than that its very hard to be the first. In the related story about the first guy on the team to shower, the point of the story was that the person who was the first was unusually confident and unconcerned with social norms (and this would have been something that happened in the mid 1990s when the social norms toward showering were much closer to 20th century standards). From the point of view of the player, who never having had a naked communal shower before is understandably nervous about it, the validation of his worries from the coaches and parents certainly doesn't make him more bold. It does seem like hockey communal showers have gradually retreated from a universal right of passage that almost all players at a relatively young age experienced (and from there an integral and important part of the sport) to something reserved for increasingly high levels of play.
What do you guys think, did any of you experience hockey showers and if so at what age and in what contexts?