In my return post I mentioned that I was coaching youth hockey again. I am head coach of my sons mite 2 team. I also said that starting to blog again I would take the occasion to brag about him and his skills and his team as much as I can. So most of this post will be just that.
His love for hockey easily runs in his DNA. I mean when I have him watching hockey almost 24/7 it's hard for him to love another sport. I'll give you the back story of his start in hockey.
We got him into learn to skate right before the pandemic. He did a full season so about 22 weeks. He progressed a lot and ended the session with a stick in his hand. Then the world shut down. I could have had him out there but my wife and I just decided not to. So now skip ahead to 2022. He missed one full year of hockey which for his age would be cross ice. (maybe I'll do another post about the money grab that is) and we figured one more year of learn to skate/Learn to play would be beneficial. He took that a ran with it. Within 3 classes he had the stick back and he never looked back. Now here we are. He tried out with our cities youth hockey program. He did well in my eyes but I'm his father so I only saw the best. When I signed up to coach I knew I would see his evaluation scores and I was very surprised to see how high he scored. He was assigned to the mite 2 team. In our city their are 4 mite teams. Being on the 2s was a big deal. This was in March. Why they do tryouts in March for a season that doesn't start until September is beyond me. Now I was thinking what are we gonna do between now and then. I did not want his skills or what he learned to fade. Enter Endicott College. They run a program called Super Gulls. It is an 8 week skills based clinic that is run by the coaches and players from Endicott men and women's hockey. It was the best thing I have ever stumbled upon. Not only was it affordable it ran from late spring until end of august. In 8 week sessions. It kept him on the ice all spring and summer and he got better and better every week. Once our season started in mid September he was more then ready.
The Valley youth hockey league starts their seasons with a parity schedule to make sure each team is properly placed and wont get killed or wont kill every team each week. Our first 3 games were a bit of a mismatch. We played 2 mite 1 teams who were very skilled and we lost by a lot. But the last game we had was against a comparable mite 2 team. We skated to a 4-4 tie. The best part being Dylan (my son in case I didn't mention that) scored not only his first goal but he netted his first hat-trick! Now, As a coach we tend to try and keep our raw emotions in check. Sure we cheer when our team scores and yell when there's a bad play but outside of that you are there to teach the game. Well, After Dylan's first goal he came off the ice and ran right into my arms and the flood of emotions came out. It got real misty in there real quick. In that moment I was both a proud coach that my player scored a goal but I was also the proudest father that my boy got his very first hockey goal. After the game I took the game puck, taped it up and we took the customary NHL style "My first hat trick" picture. He is now going over every NHL player who he has more goals then. He is proudly telling everyone that he has more goals the Connor McDavid.
Ryan (my other son incase I never mentioned it) is also playing hockey. Him being younger we tried the pre pandemic learn to skate that Dylan did but it did not take as well. I chalked it up to age. We signed him up for the same learn to skate Dylan did. He took a little bit to catch on but once he did he shed the milk crate and was doing laps. He spent most of the 18 week session on the skating side but no stick. Then the coaches running that approached us and said we think Ryan is ready for a stick. So for the last 2 classes he was on the "stick side". He could not have been happier. We quickly found out we would have a similar problem that we had with Dylan where he would now be off the ice until mid October when he starts cross ice. Once again enter Endicott College. We emailed the coaching staff and asked if they would allow a 2018 birth year to participate in the clinic. They said absolutely and welcomed him with open arms. Ryan wen through the same drills as everyone and he got better and better. The first time he did a "hockey stop" Not that T stop or pizza stop crap but a genuine hockey stop he looked for us in the stands and his smile could have lit the world up for all eternity. He kept getting better and better and we were confident he would have no problems come cross ice time. Well, He decided to throw a wrench into that. He came to us one day and proudly said the words every hockey parent I'm sure prays they never hear. "I wanna be a goalie". we brushed it off and just said yea ok well you have a full year before you even play with a goalie because cross ice doesn't use them. Thinking this would end it and he would forget we went about business as usual. This kid must not have known we did not take him seriously. Every scrimmage during Super gulls camp he would skate right to the net during his shift and proceed to save everything. No goalie equipment needed. This made us have to take a long look as things. The youth organization we play for has a stipulation that if your kid wants to be a full time goalie and they play 60% of their games in net, then they will waive the tuition for the child. So it could be a money saver in one way or another.
That is just a little insight into my boys hockey careers and one of the main reasons I wanted to start blogging again. If for nothing else, Just to have a place to talk about their hockey careers and to brag about their successes. Oh! and talk Bruins.
