Q. Can you use discarded hockey sticks for schach (daf & olimpics)?

A. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 629: 2) rules that skewers and the sides of beds cannot be used for schach since they are utensils that can become impure. Mishna Berura (ibid. 5) quotes Magen Avrohom’s clarification that these are metal skewers but wooden ones could be used, as the handles of arrows without any indentations can be also utilized for schach (ibid. 3). Mishna Berura also mentions another opinion; we are dealing with skewers that have an iron tip, and that is why they are disqualified.

Chashukei Chemed (Sukka 15a) permits using for schach walking sticks or canes that are used by the blind, since they are not made to lean on them, just to find the right path. These are pshutey kli eitz and are included in what the Talmud (Shabbath 66a) calls a stick of the elderly that is totally pure. He also mentions that police batons could be used for schach on the same grounds. For the same reason a hockey stick could be used for schach.

Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion is that although they may be in principle kosher for schach, they do not provide the proper decoration or adornment motive you would expect and desire for the great kedusha of a suka.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as Revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a