Greg Busch can barely remember a time when he wasn't strapping on skates, grabbing a stick and chasing a puck.
Busch started playing hockey when he was 5. Thirty-seven years later, the GMR Marketing executive is still going at it, playing a couple of games a week in an adult league in Milwaukee as well as coaching his son's Mini-Mites team.
Having played youth and high school hockey growing up in Michigan and club hockey at Western Michigan, Busch now plays for the Chmill Insurance team in the Pettit National Ice Center "A" League. The team also includes three other GMR execs — Blake Rosekrans, John Steinlage and Kyle Tendick. "We really built this team because there were five of us from the office playing at a pretty high level," Busch says. "I really enjoy playing with guys I work with. It's a nice change of pace from the office."
Despite being an adult league, it's not exactly for casual players. The league also includes former NHL player Mike Watt and Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej, a member of Team USA's silver-medal women's squad at the Vancouver Olympics. Earlier this month, Busch and his teammates won the Milwaukee City Hockey Championship, and they've won three USA Hockey Adult Classic regional tournaments in the last four years.
"It's kind of a weekly mental and physical checkup," says Busch, 42. "It really just keeps the competitive juices going. It's kind of like what we do with business. I love the competition and the team aspect of it."
Busch also is a USA Hockey-certified coach and coaches his 7-year-old son Gunnar's team, the Elmbrook Eagles. "I didn't push him into it at all, but he's really, really taken to it," Busch says. "So it's a lot of fun. It's a good time for us to spend together."
He figures he'll hang up his skates someday, moving more into the coaching side of the sport. But for now, he doesn't see anything changing, other than that the winter season just ended and the summer season starts in May.
"There's certainly less competitive leagues as you get older," he says. "But hopefully I can hold off on those for a while."
