One day left...sort of

Tomorrow is officially the last day of my involvement with organized minor hockey for at least a few weeks. Both the Boy and the Devil have been selected to teams for the 2010-2011 season and my duties as a convenor end with the final set of tryouts for the lowest division coming to an end.

In driving to a recent convening engagement, I realized over the last six weeks I have been associated in one way or another with the tryout processes of 11 teams (2 Minor Midget boys teams via the Boy, 3 Bantam girls teams via the Devil, 3 Minor Bantam boys teams as a convenor, 1 Midget girls team as an evaluator, 1 Minor Midget boys team as an evaluator/on-ice helper and 1 Bantam girls team as an on-ice helper.) I'm not even quite sure how I managed to be cajoled into all of these; but apparently my inability to utter the word "NO" has something to do with it. I will say that each has had its share of stories, challenges and interesting outcomes. Tryout time is undoubtedly the worst and most stressful time of the year for players, parents and coaches alike. Over the last few weeks I've seen a pretty stark contrast of jubilation and disappointment; joy at being selected and anger at being rejected.

I think the most interesting story/situation to date has involved a coach and team on its final set of releases (cuts). Generally speaking, every effort is made to make sure released player's feelings are protected. The typical process has all players placed in one room in the arena and then called out randomly one-by-one to learn their fate from the head coach in another room. Those players who are selected to the team are asked to seclude themselves (along with their parents) from the rest of the players so it is not readily obvious to all in a public setting who has been selected and who has been released. With the particular team in question, as a soon-to-be released player was being ushered to the "chopping block" his parent commented to him that he already knew who had been selected for the position he was competing for. When the player asked his parent how he knew already the father quipped "It's called text messaging." In other words, even though we had sent a selected player (who coincidentally was for a time on the bubble himself) and his parent to seclusion to protect those still awaiting the final decision, they found it necessary to work around the process and subsequently put the feelings of at least a couple of other players at risk. Ahhh, technology has even found its way into the sacred hockey dressing room for better or, in this case, worse.

Back to those from my brood who both now officially have a place to play having gone through the aforementioned processes in full.

The Boy begins a fifth consecutive tour of duty with an A team; this year at the Minor Midget level. In keeping with the trends of the last several years, he will go into next season with only a handful of the same teammates from this past season. A couple moved up, a bunch moved down and another much larger bunch moved up. All of this due, in large part to the introduction of new coaches with player preferences, biases, opinions and existing relationships. At one point during the tryout process, the Boy was approached via text message from a teammate to "move down" and to remain on a team with his most recent teammates. But he decided with our support that he would let the process follow its "natural" course as he and we have always done. And so, the A team it is with some new teammates, coaches and parents to get to know.

The Devil, as previously reported, is now happily part of a Bantam BB team...for now. Girls hockey works a little differently in that there is actually an opportunity for a team to request classification after they play a few pre-season games intended to determine what level is most appropriate for them. I believe its a good system as ultimately the goal should be to have similarly skilled players and teams playing
against each other to ensure optimal challenge and development.

Now when I say no involvement in organized hockey, I should qualify that as there are already new team things happening; new team meetings, team building activities and plans for optional summer practices.

The Devil was unable to make her first team meeting as she had a previous commitment to her chosen Summer sport - soccer. We've never believed in 12 months of hockey so each gets to choose some other activity (other than TV or Xbox) to keep their minds and bodies active through the Summer. So mom went to the intro meeting to get the lowdown on team planning around the coaching staff, tournaments, volunteer opportunities and the assignment of numbers.

The assignment of numbers, while seemingly a simple notion, is invariably a process unto itself. Superstition and tradition no doubt have a part to play in this. The Boy, for instance, has been fortunate enough to be number 3 for as long as he's been playing the game (the same number his dear old dad donned as a youngster and ever since for that matter.) The Devil has not been as lucky and in fact has had a different number each of the last four years. She began her career with the number 6, which she was able to hold on to for a couple of years, but has since gone through 8, 18, 8, 6 and now this year way off track with the number 4. To her credit she has deferred to others in the past where there was a conflict. This year it was her mother's inability to win a coin flip that left her with a defenceman's number; albeit the number worn by arguably the best defenceman ever. And so for the first few games next year I will have to pay special attention and remember the players wearing number 6, 18 and 8 are not mine.

The other major order of business for any new team is fundraising. Fundraising is an integral part of the whole hockey experience as it helps offset some of the financial burden that the game puts on all of us. In girls hockey we have an opportunity to fundraise as much of our rep fees (approx $1,000) as we can. This past season we did a pretty good job selling frozen meat, collecting beer bottles & selling tickets to Junior hockey games and were pleasantly surprised with a sizable refund at the end of the year. The boys' association caps how much you can fundraise in an effort to ensure no one tries to buy their way on to a team. Like that would ever happen he says with tongue planted firmly in cheek. The rule is there because someone tried or did it.

As luck would have it, both of our kids teams this year are getting out of the chute early with a frozen meat fundraiser, the same meat fundraiser, to be run at precisely the same time. So I guess we'll apply as much of the sales as we can to the Devil's team...sorry Boy's team. To be fair, selling frozen meat just before bbq season, or any time of the year really, is relatively easy and guilt-free. There is significant value for the buyers who have the undeniable need to eat. The product is solid and we have several regular buyers who actually contact us if they haven't heard from us in a while.

And so we get a few weeks reprieve as we've already been told the Minor Midget A coach has plans for once-a-week summer practices. We go into the coming season with a coach we know is committed to hard work and dedication. We go forward with both teams with all the guarded optimism for all that is new.

And yet, I'm sure with one day left there will most certainly be at least one more story to tell.

#imahockeydad