Summer is winding down and we are less than 25 days away from our players reporting to teams, wow already! Can you believe hockey season is here? Where did summer go? For those players that took the summer off from work-out and good nutrition, now is the time to get crackin! Counting down the days until my player leaves, kind of sad as we love having him home. But he loves the game and we want him to play and experience all he can before he has to truly be a grown up.
I have been speaking to a few coaches in different leagues and you can definitely feel their excitement growing and they cannot wait to see their players play. All the recruiting is done, or it should be done or you are in trouble, and it is time to bring the players together. It is really important for team mates to bond from day one. You cannot have strife amongst players or they will play selfishly and not for the team. Coaches really need to take the first couple of days to really concentrate on the dynamics of their team, their players. It is very important to have them become friends and teammates that will have each other’s backs on and off the ice. This is a recipe for success. Coaches, you also need to take a day or two and show your nicer side, let them know you care about them, but then let them know you are getting down to business of developing your team as a whole and winning hockey games.
There will be a lot of good hockey out there to see this season. I hope that the local communities really step up this season and start supporting junior hockey by attending games, many communities do, but some teams play to empty stands. There will be a lot of good product on the ice and can be a great family night out for just a few bucks. Some teams charge only $5 to come see a game, some less. Some communities do not even know there is a junior hockey team in town. Let’s spread the word and support these teams.
Local journalist, come on out and support Junior Hockey. Hockey families, if you know local media journalist in the area encourage them to come out to the games. Many teams will give the media an all-access pass at home games, even away games if they want to travel I would even encourage high school and college sports journalist to come out to games. Set up interviews with the players and coaches, you will get some great interviews from teams that want to share their stories. Come practice your craft and hone your skills just like the players are on the ice. You can get some really great articles for your school newspaper sports section.
I wish all the players safe journeys as they travel to report to their teams. Moms, we need to stay strong, even though it gets easier to let them go every year, there is still a part of us that wants to cry and say….don’t go!. But we are Hockey Moms, we are strong enough to know we raised them well and they will be fine. So we give them their wings to go.
On a side note…….OH how I wish I could have written the story I really wanted to this week, but once things settle down, I will be sharing with you, yet another nightmare story of frustration for paying parents towards owners and coaches that are really not good people, but greedy selfless people. But the timing is not good to share with you, YET!
Until next time,
Hockey Mom
