Youth Hockey, Part II

I had to post a follow-up to yesterday's entry. Shane and I went to the evaluation at Incredible Ice. We got there early enough to get his skates sharpened and get him ready to try-out. When we got to the bench, I gave him some simple instructions, keep both hands on your stick, do everything the coach tells you and have fun. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he took the have fun comment seriously. He did everything that was asked of him, he just wasn't the most intense skater out there, and at some points he seemed to be playing in the same way he does when he is in the Atoms program. I think he may have been thinking he is doing the same drills as Atoms and not realizing (possibly by my not enforcing it) how important this was for him to move to Mites. Anyway, when he was finished, I asked him to go ahead to the locker room so I could get some information from Phil who was doing the evaluating. He asked my if my son was out there, I said yes, he asked me his name, I said Shane, his response was "Not a chance."

I am so glad that I sent Shane to the locker room because that response was entirely out of line. He could have said to try again next time, he could have qualified that with something like he needs to work on "x" instead all I got was, "Not a Chance." I'm still trying to figure out what to tell Shane because there is no way I am going to tell him that the person said he didn't have a chance.

I spoke with Avi afterward, and I guess we do have options. We could sign him up for Atoms one more time, and he could do the same drills he has done before. We could sign him up for Learn to play hockey, but I think that will be the same as Atoms. We could not sign him up for anything, and just let him keep taking lessons from Avi, or we can go to a different rink and see if he can play in Mites.

Brenda spoke with Shane this morning and she said when she told him he didn't make Mites, he just had this dejected look in his eyes. This is where it really sucks that Incredible Ice is the most convenient rink. All Shane wants to do is play on a team where he practices during the week and gets to play a game. Being that Shane is 6, I think he wants to be an NHL star. However, being that Brenda and I are older than 6, we have a good feeling there is a pretty good chance that he may not reach that level. I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic. I will definitely encourage Shane in any endeavors he undertakes, and stand behind him 100%, and if it turns out he is good enough to try for that level, I will encourage him. For now, I am trying to do whatever I can to get him to at least play on a team.

I have e-mailed another rink that is not as convenient, but may be more open to letting kids play instead of expecting them to be the next Sidney Crosby or Wayne Gretzky before they are allowed to take the ice on a team. I believe Shane is at the point that even if he is not the best kid on the team, he will be challenged and step to the challenge by being on a team. He is no longer being challenged in the "drills and scrimmage" classes. When Avi sees him on Friday's, he challenges Shane, and Shane does great. When it comes to Sunday's at Atoms, Shane does well enough, but seems to be distracted and bored. The evaluation yesterday was much like Atoms drills.

We will see what happens from here when the person at Glacier responds back to me, but as of right now it seems like my $695 for my son to play in Mites was not good enough for Incredible Ice, maybe the $325 that Glacier charges will be good enough for them.

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