It pained me to write those words. The House League playoffs are special…they should be special. There would be no Semifinal Saturday, where would play game after game to decide who would go to the championships. There would be no Super Sunday. No coaches dressing up in tuxedos. No Shpiz and Comstock dressing as leprechauns. No national anthems. No signs in the bleachers. No big crowds. No awards celebrations. No photos on the ice.

The kids. There is a special place in my heart for these House kids, who play for the true love of the game. Most of the kids in our house league skate a couple hours a week. They do many different things in addition to hockey….but they still love the game. They were robbed. Every day when I go under the bleachers where we store stuff, I walk past the trophies from last year. I am asked what we are going to do with them?

In much the same way that songs from our youth stay with us many years later, it seems that lessons from coaches and teachers have a way of sticking with us decades later. I’m reminded of the coach who was big on hydration, “Drink a lot of water, even if you’re not thirsty.” I hear his voice as I refill my water bottle each day.

 

During recent weeks I’ve been thinking about another coach’s oft-used closing line and a different reminder. After almost every game, whatever the result and wherever we were playing, this coach would always finish with, “Hang together. Look out for each other.” At the time I didn’t think a lot about it. We spent a lot of time as a team and it seemed that just by virtue of our schedule we’d be ‘hanging together’ quite a bit. Whether I noticed it at the time or not, this coach was reinforcing a hugely important lesson. Being part of a team is more than just being physically present with your teammates or what takes place on the ice. This coach was reminding us that at the rink or away from it, good teammates stick together and do all they can to take care of one another. The timing of this reminder was important. It always came after a game and sometimes before a break from hockey. He was reinforcing to us that being a good teammate doesn’t end when we leave the rink or when the game ends. Being a good teammate means looking out for each other always.

We invite you to a Zoom session targeted for our Bantam aged players on Sunday, November 1 at 7:00 pm. The goal of Hockey in High School & Beyond is to educate all of our families on the possible options in the years ahead. The speakers will be:

The A Step aHead partners are excited to announce the 10th year of our program! We are proud of the work that has been done to educate our youth hockey community about sports safety and provide free baseline neurocognitive testing. We look forward to another 10 years of working to keep our athletes safe while they play the game they love. This year free baseline testing will be offered through November 30, 2020 at select Athletico clinics.