Thursday evening callbacks went pretty well. I didn't get much reaction except from three players. Honestly, what was I expecting from a bunch of 15-17 year olds other than some subdued "yeah", "mmmkay", "huh huh", right?
I guess the fact I'm an absolute unknown in the little world of our local hockey association played a big part in this. I mean, most of these kids have been playing hockey for almost 8 to 10 years while Andrew is only entering his 4th season and I have NEVER been around as a coach other that for a few games a year in the last couple seasons as a bench assistant, you know, mainly the guy who opens the door on one end of the bench. The three best reactions I got were from three kids who were on Andrew's team last season.
The first nice reaction was a quietly excited one but coming from that one kid, I knew it was positive as he's one of the quietest kid on the team, one I had pushed to have on my team not because of his talent but for his heart. He's not a bad player but he is especially hard working. The second reaction was an exhuberant one from a kid who'd missed a couple practices and because of it, had no clue I was even involved with the coaching of a team. His dad is a policeman and was an assistant on Andrew's team last season. I know his dad can only be an assistant kinda part time but I was looking to lock him up as part of my team of coaches. That kid always smiles and great me with a big "hi!" whenever we cross at the rink and when I introduced myself as "the dad of Andrew, the goalie" he recognized me but didn't quite understand why I'd call him at home. When I told him I'd be his coach this season, his reaction, quite instantaneous, was the kind of "really! You're gonna coach the team!?!" followed by a "That's awesome!!" that warms your heart and tells you you are doing this for the right reason. The third reactions was from a kid that had already told me, after that first Saturday evening practice, that he wanted to play for me. Andrew had told him in the dressing room. When I reached him, my simple question to him was "Alex, you ready to play hockey for me?" His reply was a resounding "Hell yeah!"
Within about a couple hours I had talked to every one of my players and had them committed to a little team meeting on Sunday, one hour before the start of our first regular season game. yup, we were to play, as a team, without having any practice time together. How crazy is that? Well, not so crazy, that's what happen when you're stuck at the VERY last minute. The good thing was, that first game was against the other Midget B team from our association, and they would not have had the benefit of a practice session either...
FM