Well, Saturday was surprisingly bitter sweet for me. I finished my duties as ‘Head Coach’ of 40+ 4 year old hockey players…AKA Rookies. Anyone not familiar with the first couple years of youth hockey in Minnesota, you spend all year practicing, culminating to a single Jamboree at the end of the year. In our case, it was a single game by dividing up my players into two teams.
Our schedule had essentially been a 45 minute session every Saturday. Oddly enough, I got pretty anxious about mid-week every week figuring out what I was going to do for practice. Sounds pretty silly saying it now, given that it was only a 45 minute session, but hey, anyone who saw me in High School Speech Class knows I get worked up when I’m in front of a crowd - not to mention Minnesota hockey parents can be a tough crew ;).
Luckily, I had several ‘assistants’ who helped every week. I definitely couldn’t have done it without out them, however, I wanted to make sure I did all the planning for them so they didn’t have the burden of coming up with a game plan to entertain kids for 20-30 minutes. Ask any of them…given the level of some of the ‘skaters’ on the ice, 30 minutes could seem like an eternity. In the beginning, our 30 minutes was essentially Simon Says while laying on the ice trying to get the kids ‘up and down’ since a good chunk of them couldn't stand or skate. It got a bit monotonous, but I think it paid off.
So why do I say bitter sweet? Well, given the anxiousness I put on myself, along with some of the long practice sessions rolling around on the ice, by the end of the year it was pretty cool to see the improvement and enjoyment the kids were having out on the ice.
That along with how ‘I grew’ on some of the kids was pretty special too – I had several kids who couldn’t get enough high fives and attention from me, but it definitely warmed my heart! Even during the Jamboree, I had a couple kids score goals and immediately B-line towards me to get their High Five – ignoring the play/puck behind them :) Additionally, watching Josh from afar all season being such a good student, positive energy, and showing attention and respect to other coaches were indeed some of my proudest moments.
So where do I go from here? Well, I’m not sure. Josh is begging to play more tennis (back in my comfort zone), so we may take a break from hockey but we’ll see. I don’t want to lose all the momentum we’ve gained – Audrey’s even out on the ice scooting around already. In terms of myself continuing coaching…well, first let's see if I get invited back ;) Tom’s convinced I’ll coach all the way through…I guess only time will tell!
As I mentioned, the culmination of our season was the Jamboree. I put together a video (almost all tongue and cheek…don’t take any comments seriously) showing Josh’s meteoric rise to domination (I’ll start the BS now). Josh guaranteed ‘lots of goals’ during his Jamboree and he didn’t disappoint.
Warning: The video is about 25 minutes – it’s not for the faint hearted ;) Given the length and the duration, I’m hoping it streams OK. Let me know if you have problems.