They'd told me over the weekend that the deadline to find a coach for the second team was Wednesday evening but I didn't feel like sitting there and wait. Since I was the only person to really take a look at my own lineups in action on Monday, I decided to report back to them.
Didn't hear back from them until late on Wednesday afternoon when they asked me if I could meet with them later on Wednesday evening. The guy thanked me for the thorough practice report and was telling me that they were meeting with the coach prospects for the other team and that we could set the squads right then and there. I was getting anxious, thought it would never happen.
Meanwhile, as I was teaching a karate class, my wife texted me that somebody else from our local hockey association wanted me to call them back. I did just before going to the meeting and he told me I had to register my team with the league by completing a form that listed all players with their jersey numbers, date of birth and so on. Thing was, I STILL DIDN'T HAVE A TEAM!!!
It wouldn't be long before we would correct that. I met with the scouts and the coaches of the other team a bit later and we sat down to look at players and lineups. The guys on the other side are two early 20's kid. I knew one of them since he was an assistant on Andrew's team last year. Not the brightest knife in the drawer to be honest. His friend has coached youth baseball and looked much more ready to control of a team.
We usually would have done a draft but we just didn't have much time and the other coaches didn't know the players much, other than looking at their ratings so we agreed that we would work off premade lineups, mine and the scout's.
The scout had put together a couple lineups before I'd done mine but while they looked about as fair as mine, they had quite a few differences, mainly taking away some of the middle of the pack kids I just wanted to coach because they were on Andrew's team last year and I knew were good kids.
The scout started with one switch I was hoping I could avoid but knew made just too much sense. He told me that given how Andrew is a much better goalie, we had to take the worst defender available on our team. The player I was giving up wasn't the best though so it didn't hurt me that much.
What followed got a bit crazy. He then offered the other team one of my best forward under the explanation that his dad was a former hockey coach in our association and could certainly helped them. I countered that I just couldn't lose one of my two top forward that way and not get anything in return. Way it was set up, their top forwards were older players, both in their last year of Midget. The scout seemed reluctant to split them up. Then ensued some back and forth about a whole lot of things and he suggested we exchanged my top two forwards for their top two forwards. Even though all four players were rated as 1 (the highest score for a player) I knew I was coming up on top in that transaction. But there was a problem. One of my top forward was linked to my current top defender. He'd told me on Monday that if we ever changed the lineups, they would like to stay on the same team since they are neighbors and will travel together to games. Now, I couldn't lose my top defender, another player rate at 1, for anything less, especially not after accepting the lowest rated defender, could I?
They agreed to give me their top rated defender in that kind of blockbuster deal. Like that, all the players rated 1 had changed side and for me, I was coming up on top. The defender I was giving away is a very attacking kind of defender while the one I was getting was a bit more of a stay at home defender, but I was happy with that.
Compared to my initial lineups, I ended up giving up a couple players I liked but getting similarly rated player that I didn't mind too much. Best final move of the evening was brought forward by one of the coach of the other team. Lookign at the bottom of my lineup, he asked me if I really wanted to hold on to a couple of brothers. Told him not too much but I knew the older brother since he'd played with Andrew for a couple seasons. The coach told me they were neighbors of his and he'd been their baseball coach for a couple seasons and would really like to have them on his team. The older brother is one of the two players rated 4 (the worst possible rating) while the younger brother is a 3. I agreed to swap up the two for is only 4 rated player.
That was sort of a strategic move on my part. Before the move, I was set to have 1 goalie, 4 known defenders and 10 forwards. Having 10 forwards on a hockey team is a nightmare to manage on the bench. You can make it less of a burden by forcing a forward to defense but by doing that, you often weaken your defense as well as make a forward unhappy. By giving up a player, I was going to a lineup of 1 goalie, 4 defenders and a perfect 9 forwards for three full lines. WIN!
I got back home, tired after a frigging long day, but happy I finally had a team. Sat down around the dinner table with my son to look at the team he'd have around him, he looked happy...
This evening, I will get on the phone to call the kids on my team. Can't wait, I'm just excited. Can,t wait to see if there will be any reaction when I'll talk to the kids. I especially want to hear from that defender rated 1 who goes from possibly playing in front of the girl as his goalie to playing in front of Andrew as his goalie...
FM