…… Not Necessarily for the Better

I am in the midst of a move from my former warehouse with office buildout out to a full office layout to permit us to continue growing as an organization and host on-site workshops and parent education sessions starting this fall for groups from 20 to 100+ (more to follow on that front once we are settled in the new space).

My son and daughter gave me a hand this past Friday tearing down one of the workstations so we could move it to the other space where the first thing they said was WOW this is huge and is such a better layout than your old “office”. Then my daughter commented why I was bringing all my OLD stuff there in lieu of nicer/newer to which I said because there is nothing wrong with it.

I believe we could all learn a little from that type of old-school thinking when it comes to youth sports ( I believe kids should play with wood sticks until they are strong enough to benefit from the flex also), too many people are trying to keep up with the Jones on gear, teams without cluing in when it is all over it were all worth it.

In the course of the back and forth my son commented when he was looking at many of the team photos I have along the wall that was our impromptu boardroom (pictured below) when he was looking at the team poster I still had from a tournament our association hosted and he said “That was the best team I had in Hockey”.

I turned to him and said “Why? You played on so many teams over the years including all your AAA rep and Spring teams afterward”

His response?

“Because it was the best group of guys and coaches I had, and it was the most fun I ever had playing hockey.”

He was 8 years old that season, it was our H4 Novice Team thinking back I had to agree it was one of the best teams I had coached over the years also.

It was not due to the winning record we had, far from it, we only won a handful of games.

It was not due to any tournament wins (we lost all but one game in the three tournaments we played in)

That particular team was a mix of 5 new players, 5 who played a couple of years and 5 who were going into their 4th season.

The top player on our team, “Switch” (I nicknamed as he always prompted me to switch to play forward when his turn was to play D) whom I had not coached previously, was one that I identified even then could play at a high level, and he is now playing his third season of major journey hockey 11 years later. Another that I had coached the year prior also was drafted and has played 2 years of major junior.

Being that he was so far ahead of the rest of the group and could score at will, I knew the only way that those starting out would enjoy the seasons as we were still playing full ice games (which took a decade to change to cross ice) is I would have to promote team play.

I knew in tournaments that there was a rule called the Gretzky rule, where a player could only score 3 goals in a game and any goals after that would not count. The reason for the rule was to ensure that an early bloomer would not dominate a game, would focus on team play by not only scoring but assisting goals and all players would contribute.

To ensure that we played as a team in all games, I talked to him and his parents to see if they would buy-in to the Gretzky rule for all games, not just tournaments. One of his close friends was on our team who was one of our first year players and I used that as a selling point that I would like him and all the other new players to touch the puck, make and receive passes, get shots and ultimately every player on the team to score a goal before the season ended.

Both he and his parents said they were on board, so for every game, we played that season, he would score his 3 goals, in some games soon into the first period.

At times, when he would get the puck after, as he was so proficient on his core skills he would carry the puck into the zone, and as he and his parents were big fans of the game, although Gretz was way before his time, it did not take him long to figure out where his office was, behind the opposition net.

I will never forget one of the plays he made to set up his friend for his first goal, he waited patiently behind the net for his friend to get in position with his stick on the ice in front and in lieu of skating to either side to pass to him, he flipped the puck over the net and it landed right in front of his friends stick and he buried it while the goalies head was spinning.

He was 8 when he did that and the skills he demonstrated over the years I had the opportunity to coach him never ceased to amaze me.

The celebration that followed afterward was like we had won the Stanley Cup, all the coaches jumped up, the team skated on the ice, gloves, and sticks were flying everywhere and “Switch” was probably the one celebrating the most.

As the season went on, each time a player got his first goal, especially when Switch would get the assist, our team would celebrate.

Opposing teams and coaches thought we were nuts, in most instances we were down by 5 or more goals.

One of the other activities that made the season fun for players and parents alike was “Game On”, where one of the parents would host a street hockey day for the players and Sunday NFL football party for the parents. It started out initially as a one hour game, then turned into what it was like for many of us parents, a full day of playing on the street, almost every player would take turns putting the goalie gear on.

It was that season that I also started to see the whispers in the corners amongst parents, and it was then when I started to see the beginning for what is commonplace today, the recruiting process of Spring Hockey. Switch had been playing Spring hockey literally since he put skates on, others each year started to be recruited as well and the process started earlier and earlier.  I used to say parents were more concerned about what spring team their kids were on than winter so they could brag to others.

During that season I was pulled aside by Spring “Scouts” asking about Switch after many games and each time I would either talk to or send an email to his parents to which they would say, thanks but no thanks, he is happy where he is.

Each year thereafter I would get asked by parents what spring programs to try out for, I even was asked to coach for a few programs but I did not sway from my focus on Fun and skill development focus in Spring but found the majority of programs were pushing the envelope in terms of focusing on winning tournaments for bragging rights and costs were excessive as well.

As we only a few short weeks away from kids hitting the ice for their rep tryouts and recreational evaluations after what has now been a prolonged heat wave in Vancouver, I can’t help but think back when was it that we got caught up (as in me and my son) in the insanity of Spring Hockey and it was after that season when a coach recommended to me that my son could benefit from offseason skills development.

Fast forward 10+ years, only a handful of kids that I know that went down the competitive spring hockey path played beyond minor hockey, only 2 of the hundreds of kids I coached over the years reached the Major Junior Level and although both are very strong players, they were not drafted to the NHL.

Switches parents also came to me on many occasions that year saying he was having the best year ever on any team, a ton of fun and really loved how I coached. This was a kid that played on top level teams for several years so I was always humbled when they did so.

Although my son did play with him at the AAA level on a few teams after that Novice season, he was right, that was the best year, best team, the best group of parents of any of the teams we had. Once we entered the Rep Stream followed by Spring Hockey each year the level of competition ramped up to a point where it just did was not fun anymore and kids started quitting.

A colleague of mine said his son in Midget, was the last player in his age group to still be playing, just as when my son played he was one of last 3 from his original Atom Team (9-10)

We had a ton of fun even though we did not win many games, all the kids improved significantly, every kid on the team scored at least one goal that season and most of all, all returned to play the following year.

The last thing my son shared with me when we were talking about that team was how many times he got to play D with the other strong forward on our team, whom he hung out with frequently at the house playing in our driveway playing for hours on end.

That has always been my goal, to ensure that kids love the game more at the end of a season than they did at the beginning, and for that team, I can say they all did.

Sadly 10 years later, many of those kids from that team quit for various reasons, including my son after his Bantam AAA teams season where I was just a “Hockey Dad” watching his winning at all costs coach from the stands as he shared when he quit

“it’s just not fun anymore, there is too much BS”

Fortunately, he did not lose the love for the game completely, did play one more season of Midget AAA and is looking forward to playing beer league this fall with many of his cronies.

That is where 99.96% of the kids are headed IF we do our job right as coaches, unfortunately as parents with all the pressure of spiraling costs, dreams to play collegiately, junior or long shot playing professionally, we get caught up in the madness that is supposed to be a game played by kids.

In lieu, it has become more about the adults competing with other adults thru kids.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.