Youth Hockey

The last thing I want to do is become one of "those" parents. However, I feel like with the rules and people in charge of certain things, I may end up doing exactly that. In the end, I want what every parent wants from their kids, I want my kids to learn, have fun, grow, and not become bored when pursuing whatever activity they decide to undertake. I feel this way for both kids, but this post will concentrate on Shane because of the experience occurring right now.

Shane has been skating since he was about 3 1/2 or so. He has really done well, and progressed. Once we saw that he was getting somewhat bored with the regular skating lessons, we started him with hockey. He had one or two sessions of just playing around during the regular skating lessons, then he went into the week-long camp last summer. He had a good time there, but I felt like some or most of the other kids had more hockey training. I spoke with the parents at that camp and realized there were two separate programs he could go into at Incredible Ice. One was a "learn to play" program, the other was "Atoms." Although just like with everything else around Incredible Ice, and this subculture of youth hockey, the answers and information varied widely. In the end, we signed him up for Atoms. During the first session of Atoms, we found he really liked one of his coaches, and we found out that Avi gave private lessons. So, in addition to the Atoms every week, Shane has also been taking private lessons. We have seen a very big improvement in all aspects of his skating and his hockey skills. So, we decided to look into the next level of youth hockey which would be the Mites league.

Well, I e-mailed one of the people in charge of the youth hockey and without even seeing him (or any other kid for that matter) play, she immediately said he is not ready. I e-mailed back and said if he's not ready, then let me know what we need to work on to tryout for the next season of mites. She never really responded, but Avi spoke with another coach of Atoms to try to figure out what to work on. Avi feels like Shane is ready to at least get evaluated for Mites. Today is the evaluation for the Mites, and I asked on Sunday during Atoms if there was anything I needed to do prior to coming there. Someone from the office came out, watched the kids play for a couple of minutes and said he didn't think any of them were ready and I essentially shouldn't waste my time going there.

After speaking with Brenda and Avi, we decided that I will bring Shane anyway today. We are all looking at it from the sense that if he makes it, great, if he doesn't then he got an extra 30 minutes of ice time he wouldn't have had anyway and we see what they are looking for during evaluations.

My whole thing is that hockey just seems to be so much different than any other kids sport. In pretty much any other sport, kids can sign up, get on a team, and practice and play. With hockey you need to go through very specific steps before you should even consider having your child on a team. I understand there is more skill involved than with a kids soccer league, or even with baseball or football, but there should still be something for the kids that may be more advanced than the "drills and scrimmage" of Atoms but not yet ready for Mites due to age or some other factor. We can really see that during some of Atoms Shane looks a little bored. We feel that he is ready to have the weekly practice and game like in soccer, it's just that Incredible Ice is very specific with the way the kids progress from one stage to the next.

I can understand if a parent is getting fully entrenched in that sub-culture, and wants their kid to do travel, and possibly compete for upper level leauges or the NHL one day, but that is not my intent. I want Shane to have fun and learn. I am not expecting him to be in the 2021 draft class, I hope more that he is in the 2025 graduating class with a Master's degree. For now, he is enjoying hockey, and I want to see him happy, and I believe that will be actually playing on a team. I'll let you know how it goes later