First thing first, no, not THOSE midgets! Hockey playing Midgets
My oldest son Andrew never wanted to learn how to skate when he was 5 so we didn't force him to back then. A few years back, at the ripe age of 13, he showed some interest to start learning, mostly so he could go on skating days with his school friends. We'd go to the local rink on Sunday afternoon and he would work at it in the middle of the rink, with the very young kiddos. A year later, he asked us if he could play hockey... as a goalie!
He's now 17 and entering his fourth season as a hockey goalie, just out of two years of a special hockey program in high school in which he practiced hockey for about hours four afternoons a week. I improved immensely during those last two years and it's always a pleasure for me to go an watch him play.
Categories around here go from Novice, Atome, Pee Wee, Bantam, Midget and Junior. Most categories have level from competitive (AA, BB, CC) to recreative (a, B and sometimes C)
His first year of play was his last year of eligibility for the Bantam category. He had a great year that year, the 2011-12 season, playing in Bantam B. His team ended up winning one of their two tournaments and qualifying for the regionals. Nobody could believe he had never been a goalie before, in fact even less that he had never played before. He was 15 when that season ended.
His second season saw him move up to Midget, a rough move up as it's a three year kinda category with kids as old as 18 at the end of the season. The level of play goes up one big notch from Bantam to Midget, especialy for goalies who are facing better shooters and kids with much better puck handling skills. He struggled mightily during preseason play but ended up having a good season, playing in Midget B. That was his first season as part of the afternoon hockey program and it's really when he improved quite a lot. It was also his only season to date where he had to share goalie duty after spending his first season as the only goalie on the team. But even then, the other goalie broke his ankle early in the season and missed all but the first 3 and last 3 games in the season. Andrew was the only goalie for the rest of the season.
His third season, last season, was a rough one. Again playing in Midget B, the season got off to a rocky start. He got kinda categorized as Midget B while the goalie who had broke his ankle and had barely played the season before got tagged as Midget A. We're not big complainers and in retrospect, maybe we should have whined to the hockey association but he was still happy to play hockey and was still part of the hockey program at school. That's probably what hurt the most since not only had he played more that the other goalie the season before, he was also on the ice 5-6 hours a week during school time, learning goaltending technique with goalie coaches. To top it off, up to maybe a week before the start of the season, his Midget B team didn't even have a coach. I was just too busy to get into it last year, what with having a dojo to take care of most evenings, and they ended up with another dad coaching them. It was sad affair. The coach didn't care about the team at all despite his son being on the team, and overall, the team was lacking in skills, at all positions but especially in the defenders spots and also, maybe because of the coach's attitude, the kids had a bad attitude toward effort during games and practices. I ended up with the habit of counting shots to kinda encourage Andrew and show him that despite the 7-3 or 8-1 losses, he couldn't do it all by himself. He faced a couple of 50+ shots game and numerous 35+ shots game. Actually, 35 was more like his norm... He was the only goalie on the squad and saw a lot of action but he ended up being frustrated a whole lot. Finally, I missed maybe one or two games on the whole season and even ended up on the bench as an assistant with the defenders.
Fast forward to this season, his last season of eligibility for the Midget category. Preseason camp started on August 23 and at first, it was supposed to be basic practices to get everybody back in shape with players assigned at random into three groups. He got assigned to group 3 which we soon learned was comprised of players that would eventually play in Midget B. He never actually got a chance to show his worth for a shot to move up to Midget A. While there were only 4 keepers for 2 A teams and 2 B teams last year, camps started this year with 8 goalies for 4 teams but one decided he wouldn't play this year leaving us with 7 for 4 teams. That meant one B team would have two goalies.
Training camp consisted in intrasquad games after the first couple practices. Players were being evaluated during those games.
Midget is a weird category, especially the midget B level. Guys want to play yet don't always put in the effort. Goalies usually pay for that. Think NHL All Star game where defense doesn't exist. In his first two midget season, Andrew would often come back home very frustrated after one of these intra squad games but this year, you could tell he had grown into his role, as if the game had slowed down in front of him. I remain convinced that if you put him behind some level A caliber defenders that know how to clear the puck and don't always leave him alone with breakaways and he could most definitely play at the A level. Up until two weeks ago, there were only two goalies assigned to the B level, Andrew and a young girl who's just coming up from the Bantam category. Poor thing seems afraid of the puck.
Fast forward some more to Thursday last week. With the start of the regular season looming large, players were still not separated into teams and one goalie had been cut from the A level. I watched Andrew split time with the other two and thought about how it would suck for him to not only play at the B level but also to have to share goalie duty with another goalie especially now that he's out of high school and wouldn't be playing hockey in the afternoon...
It's during that Thursday evening practice that I learned the reason why the players had yet to be split into teams. There were NO COACHES!!! NONE!
Sigh, it was 2013 all over again. This time though, the dad who coached him last year was unavailable since his son had been picked to play at the A level...
The two gentlemen in charge of evaluating players walked through the few parents in the stands and asked around: "hey, anybody interested in coaching this year?"
I texted this info to my wife as I was waiting for Andrew to come out of the locker room. Maybe she read something into my text message and replied immediately with this: "You would be so good at this! Question is, are you too busy?"
It twisted me inside. Maybe secretly I wanted to get involved. Was I any less busy than a year before? Probably not but things were in a better place with a good replacement instructor at the dojo if I ever had the need to. After all, I had only missed 2 games last year. To sit in the stands or stand behind the bench, would the latter really take THAT much more time out of my weeks???
I kinda talked about how that last practice had gone with Andrew on the drive home and then some more with my wife, about me giving my name when I got home. Just before going to bed, I asked Andrew if he'd like it if I coached him and his team. You should have seen his face. He lighted up instantly...
Thing is, I'm a freaking perfectionist. I don't like doing things unless I feel VERY good about it. It only took my wife telling me that I couldn't do worse than last year's coach to convince me...
So now, of course, I would not start this kind of thread if I had not given my name. So the morning after, i.e. last Friday, I called one of the guys in charge to offer them to take charge of Andrew's team with one BIG condition: I wanted Andrew to be my ONLY goalie. My first reason was very personal, I wanted Andrew to have fun and play as much as possible this season. My second reason was kinda simple. At this recreative level, we usually alternate between goalies, the same way we don't have a depth chart of attackers or defenders, but there are moments when you might want to use a specific player. I didn't want to be stuck having to choose between my son whom I think the world of, as would most dads, and another goalie...
They got back to me within 10 minutes and they agreed, Andrew would be my only goalie, and I was named Head Coach of the Commandeurs of Pointe-Lévy Midget B1!!!
This thread here is where I'll come back to whine, vent, rant, and hopefully share good moments of my team... Hope to see you around.
Season officially starts on October 5th and as of now, I'm the only coach for two teams. I'll report back with what has happened since last Friday...
FM