Midget surprise

The year I was coaching midget hockey in the Rockford Hockey club I had a pretty good team. Midgets were fifteen and sixteen year olds. The nicest advantage of coaching midgets was many of them had drivers’ licenses and drove to practices. This meant there were fewer parents around. Anyone who has coached at any level can tell you the problems with parents. Every year I had a meeting with parents at the start of the season and would point out their responsibilities. They were to pay the bills. They were to complement their kids when they did something good. They were not to bring up any mistakes their child made. The kids knew more about their mistakes than the parents.

Anyway, we were having a good year. Late in the season we were invited to a midget tournament in Springfield, Illinois. WE accepted and made the trip. My son Dan who was fourteen and played Bantam hockey went with us. I had less than twenty players, so I asked my son if he wanted to play up. He said yes, so I added him to the roster. He could skate with the fourth line and get some experience.

During the championship game we were not doing well. The first and second lines were playing pretyy much out to lunch. I got frustrated and pulled them off and with my back to the game proceeded to try to get them motivated. I had put the fourth line out with Dan playing defense. I continued to motivate.

Suddenly I became aware of a change in crowd noise. I turned around and looked at the scoreboard, and we were ahead. Turns out Dan had scored two goals in that shift to put us in front. It was all the motivation my first and second line needed. We won going away.

You never know what your kid can do.