NOVEMBER 2011
“Keep your kids out of hot water, put them on ice”
Hockey is Expensive This Magazine is FREE
Zach Warhoftig
The Great Debate
Dryland for a Cause We Need Fun! The Official Hockey Magazine of the Texas Amateur Hockey Association
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Doing Dryland…for a great cause! by Marla Williams
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embers of the Dallas Penguins PeeWee - Salekin team supported their team mate, Brendan Sinclair, while he ran the Hope Park 5K race on October 1st in Frisco, TX. The team cheered him on and then ran the 1 mile Fun Run. Brendan finished 7th in the 10 to 14 year age group with a time of 29 minutes 9 seconds. Brendan ran in honor of his brother, Trevor, who is confined to a wheel chair.
Chris Samatas Wolves Pee Wee B.
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Hope Park will be a playground built to suit the needs of all children, at any age, with a focused consideration for children with special needs – an inclusive play adventure that brings children together and helps them build self-confidence, make friends and play as equals. Hope Park’s design will be interactive, evoking a sensory play experience that engages children at many developmental levels. For more information, visit http://www.hopeparkfrisco.org. ■
Payton Sneathern, Allen Americans #10.
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3 yr. old Micah Adams playing pond hockey with the big boys at Hockey Ambitions grand opening.
Former Dallas Stars Midget Major AA and Southlake Carroll Varsity Gold Player Kyle Welch (formerly of Southlake Texas) playing for RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) ACHA Division 1 Hockey where he has cracked the starting line up as a Freshman. Kyle is studying Packaging Engineering at RIT. He has 7 points, 2 goals and 5 assists in the first 8 games of the season.
Daniel Shultz (Jr Brahmas PeeWee A).
E. Harrison #5 - Alliance Bulldogs.
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Vili Lappalainen, concentrating on shooting on net.
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Dakotah Blank and the Dallas Stars Ice Girls. Probably the highlight of the event!
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The Dallas Stars Selects – McManaman-Squirt A team. Tournament champions (in their division) at the Oklahoma City, Oktoberfest Tournament
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Kim Tinkham (1957 - 2010) Ice Times Magazine is dedicated to the memory of Kim Tinkham. Kim lost her brave battle with breast cancer Tuesday, December 7, 2010. Kim was a hockey mom, wife, youth hockey enthusiast, and editor and publisher of Ice Times. She will be greatly missed.
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From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Crull Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Rickard Report . . . . . . . 19 Behind the Bench . . . . . . . 20
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Aaron Best (Tulsa Flames Squirt B).
George Colts-Tegg (DSEHC 00 - Hanas).
Nick Whitney (Jr Brahmas PeeWee A).
Ben Johnson # 22 on the OKC OilKings Squirt.
Texas Aces #18 Patrick Conway.
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From the Editor by Scott Tinkham
You Won’t Always Like Your Coach
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makes you look stupid for being on the team in the first place. Do your job and look for a trade, don’t try to second guess or bad mouth the coach or your boss. Let me give you an example from a friend of mine. My friend was offered a full college scholarship to play for a college hockey team. He was very good. Not because he said so, everyone that knew him said he was very good. Anyway, he received this scholarship and began college. My friend played goaltender. There were four goaltenders that made the team. One was a senior, one was junior and the other two were freshmen. My friend was one of the freshmen. As I said, my friend was very good. Actually, better than the other goaltenders on the team. He thought he should have started. His coach thought otherwise. My friend at that time didn’t know the importance of being a team player or seeing the big picture or being patient so he quit. Right out of the blue. He quit. He didn’t like his coach and he quit. Looking back he regrets that decision. It ended his hockey career. Your coach and your boss may never notice you. They may not notice how much time you put in or how hard you work. Someone will notice you if you always give 100%. Maybe it will be your teammates. Maybe it will be a scout. Make sure that you are doing the things that will get you noticed in a positive way. Most of all, you need to make sure that you notice the things that you are doing. Let me give you a little hint. The next time you are trying out for a team try introducing yourself to the coach before the tryout and tell him that you are his new starting defenseman (or whatever position you play). If nothing else he will know who you are. Remember to back your mouth up with your playing. A few years ago, some friends and I went to this great outdoor concert. It was a band that we had grown up listening to and we knew all the words to their songs. I was so excited about this concert. My friends were excited about the concert too, until we sat down on the blanket that we had spread out on the grass to relax and listen to this band. That’s when the mosquitoes showed up. It wasn’t a swarm of mosquitoes. It was a few mosquitoes but enough to be a little bothersome. One particular friend thought these mosquitoes were terrible. From the time the band started to play until their last encore she complained the entire time about the mosquitoes. When we finally got in the car to go home and started to talk about the concert she mentioned in a disappointed voice that the band had not played several of their biggest hits. The rest of us had to tell her that they had in fact played those songs. She had been so obsessed about the mosquitoes that she had totally missed the concert. My point is this. Sometimes we get so involved in the little things that are irritating us in our lives that we miss the really important things. When your coach is yelling at you about something you are doing or not doing on the ice, remember that he is doing what he thinks is best for you as a player and for the team. Don’t tune out the message because you don’t like the way it is being delivered. Separate yourself from the voice and hear the message. Another helpful hint. Whenever your coach is talking to you, on the ice or on the bench on in the dressing room stop what you are doing and look him straight in the eye. Pay attention, nod your head and listen. Do NOT say “I know”. If he thought you knew he wouldn’t be telling you again. If you don’t understand what he is saying to you, ask a question. This will go a long way towards how the coach perceives you. Remember that the people in power are in power for a reason. Try to see the big picture whenever you can and don’t make any quick decisions when you don’t have to. As a hockey player, student, family member or an employee you won’t always be able to the see “the big picture” but you won’t have to if you make yourself a part of it!” ■
ell it’s getting to be that time of the season where things may not be going the way you planed so I thought I’d share Chapter Eight of Life Lessons on Ice by JK Tinkham. Parents this was written by Kim for your young hockey player to read and who knows it might just be the perfect time given the subject. Chapter Eight “I know, you’re saying “what do you mean I won’t like my coach?!” That’s great. I’m glad that you like your coach. Coaches should be likeable people. Some of my best friends are coaches. But that doesn’t erase the fact that if you stay in hockey for any length of time you might just get a coach that you don’t like. Or worse yet, the coach doesn’t like you! You might as well hang up your skates. Yep, go ahead and put a 3x5 index card up on the used equipment sale bulletin board. Your hockey career is over. Hey, wake up! I’m kidding. Just because you don’t like your coach doesn’t mean it’s the end of your hockey career. It does pose some interesting challenges. Life is like that! You knew I was going to say that didn’t you? Ask yourself. Did you really like all of your teachers? Did you like all the kids in your class? Sometimes you may have even found yourself disliking your own parents! What is wrong with you? Nothing is wrong with you. Or maybe you were thinking there was something wrong with them. Well, that’s a viable option. Let’s blame it on them. NOT! Life is very interesting. And the things that make life interesting are the different types of people that are in it. Now, let’s get back to your coach. Your coach is important. Coaches are supposed to help make you a better player. Coaches should be fair and consistent. Coaches should be looking out for the player’s and team’s best interest. It isn’t always going to be like that in life. Just like it won’t always be that way in hockey. Sometimes you get a coach whose main emphasis is on winning no matter what it takes. And in hockey I have seen the “no matter what it takes” translate into checking from behind, slew footing players, hooking, tripping, etc. Sometimes you get a coach who yells and screams himself hoarse every game at you (or it sure seems like he is directing it at you). Sometimes you may even get a coach whose son plays on the team and plays every other line out while everyone else sits the bench for two line changes. Now, for the Life Lesson. In life you will get people who will take the place of your coach. Like your boss. Right now your coach has nothing to do with your ability to make money. As a matter of fact you are probably paying to play. But as you get older you may find yourself in a situation where your coach at your job (the boss) is a real tyrant. You may love what you do for a living. You may love that great salary. You are actually getting paid for doing what you love. BUT, you can’t stand your boss! What to do, what to do? Do you quit? Do you whine and complain to your co-workers? Do you write anonymous notes about him and post them by the water cooler? I don’t know, you tell me. What would be the best thing to do? Let’s think this through together. If you learned the Life Lesson from hockey, you learned that: 1) complaining to your teammates doesn’t help at all 2) quitting probably will only hurt you and slow down (if not end) your hockey career and 3) coaches, like bosses, are not perfect. They are human, just like you. The best thing to do is to realize that you have a job to do while you are there. Do your job to the best of your ability. Do what you can to be a team player and if all that doesn’t work then you start looking for another “team” to play on. But remember this, in life as in hockey, bad mouthing the coach of the team that you are on only
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Injury Prevention By Luke Beltrand
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njury prevention is one of the most valuable and underused techniques in the hockey fitness regimen. A proper injury prevention program can actually be extremely inexpensive, quick, and effective. Quality injury prevention can help decrease costs of medical expenses and ensure that our players live a long, injury free life hopefully without nagging old injuries from “back in the day.” Finally the last thing any of us want to see is a teammate, athlete, or child get hurt. We love the game, all we want to do is play! Every injury prevention program should start with proper warm up and flexibility techniques. Dynamic stretching (like the lunge shown to the right) is the best way to warm up before working out. It puts the body through functional movements which are sport specific that prepares the body for the upcoming athletic endeavor. This allows the muscle to stay explosive while significantly decreasing risk of injury, as well as allowing the player to perform with greater levels of strength and speed. Dynamic movements with your upper body or with a medicine ball ( As shown to the lower left) are also important before doing upper body lifting. Static stretching is extremely important for post workout cool down and injury prevention. Static stretches post work out is valuable for decreasing soreness, increasing flexibility, preventing injuries and providing
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relaxation for the muscles. Increasing your flexibility can relate to a 20% increase in strength and speed. Because of its relaxing properties it is NOT good to do static stretching before workouts or games. The second major portion is the actual injury prevention itself, and there are many simple ways to do this. Before lower body lifts it’s imperative to have glute and hamstring activation specifically, before squatting type movements. The Glute/Ham maneuver to the right does exactly that, merely place your heel to the ground and pressing your hips up. Using monster bands to activate the hip flexors and strengthen Muscles around the knee joint in the lower extremities is also vital. They have a positive effect on Quads, Gluteus Maximus, Calves, IT Band and Hamstrings. This can drastically decrease knee injuries through an increase in bone density and stabilization of the ligaments around the knee. Post workout is the best time for upper body injury prevention as the movements target specific areas of the shoulder and rotator cuff. Doing these movements before a lift weakens the specific joints and smaller muscles, therefore increasing risk of injury when moving toward primary lifts involving larger muscle groups. In the same way it is also important to do core work closer to the end of the workout. This is more in regards to heavy lift days, but working out your core obviously increases fatigue making
Luke Beltrand is a Former Collegiate Hockey player and Current Manager of Crull Fitness Valley Ranch. Luke is Certified as a Certified Fitness Specialist through the Cooper’s Institute and Sports Performance Coach through USA Weightlifting. Luke is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for over 40 local Hockey Teams..
them weaker. The core is extremely important in stability when performing lifts so working them to exhaustion before an important or heavy lift can significantly increase your risk of injury. I hope these tips were informative and helpful. I also hope I spurred you all to do some research on how to best implement these programs into your workout lifestyle. As always the Crull Fitness staff and I are available for questions at any of our locations and via email! ■
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Curtale Approaching All-Time Record by Corey Hersch
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hen Tony Curtale was named the first head coach of the Texas Tornado in 1999, he was had just a couple of years of head coaching experience at the junior level. Now, 12 years later, he is on the verge of making United States junior hockey history. Curtale came into the 2011-2012 NAHL season with 521 total regularseason wins between the Springfield Jr. Blues and Tornado. Through the first 14 games of the season, the Tornado have eight wins. His next win will be his 530th, and will break the record held by Mike Hastings for most wins in United States Junior Hockey history. Curtale began his junior hockey career in 1979 with the Brantford Alexanders of the Ontario Hockey Association. That 1979-1980 team featured 10 future NHLers, including Mark Hunter, Dave Hannan, Mike Bullard, and Curtale himself. The Calgary Flames drafted Curtale with the 31st overall pick of the 1980 NHL Entry Draft, and was the first American drafted. Later that season, he appeared in two games for the Flames. “It’s every kid’s dream to get drafted and play in the NHL,” Curtale said. “I got to play in the Montreal Forum that year. Those are things you just don’t ever forget.” Curtale played two more seasons with the Alexanders, before going on to play professionally in both the Central Hockey League and the now-defunct International Hockey League. In 322 minor league games, Curtale had 30 goals and 145 assists, good for 175 points. “When I got drafted, I thought I’d be playing in the NHL for a long time,” Curtale said. “It didn’t turn out that way, but I think it made me a better coach. I wasn’t around superstars, so I saw the game being taught more and it made me think more critically about the game.” Before coming to the Tornado, Curtale was the head coach and General Manager of both the NAHL’s Springfield Jr. Blues and the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. But before the start of the 1999-2000 season, an NAHL expansion team came calling. “Our old owner, Quentin Bourjeaurd, called me while I was working with Erie in the OHL,” Curtale said. “He called me a couple times because he wanted me to be the one to start up a franchise. I turned him down, initially, because I’d never been down south.” But Bourjeaurd’s persistence paid off. “He flew me down here, and I thought, ‘Sure, I’ll do it for a year or two and then move on.’ But the next thing I knew, I fell in love with Texas and my family fell in love with Texas and I decided it would be the right thing to stay.” In 1999-2000 Curtale was honored as NAHL Executive of the Year and in 2003-2004 as the NAHL Coach of the Year. In his time with Texas, the team has won three national championships, four NAHL championships,
Amon Weihmuller Dallas Stars Selects U16AA - Aucoin
and seven division championships. In each of his first seven seasons with Texas, Curtale guided the Tornado to seven straight 40+ win seasons, including an expansion team-record 42 wins in 1999-2000 and an NAHLrecord 48 wins in 2003. The Tornado also won three straight NAHL national championships from 2004-2006 with Curtale at the helm. “He was the best coach I’ve played for at any level,” said Denny Reagan, a member of the Tornado from 2002-2004. “He gets the most out of his players and practices are unbelievably organized. Every practice was a strict routine every week and we knew what to expect.” Reagan scored his first junior hockey goal against the Tornado when he was 16, but always remembered that game for another reason. “I saw his demeanor on the bench. He was very intimidating, and he struck me as someone I wanted to play for,” Reagan said. “I was playing with Des Moines [in the USHL] in 2002 and was just getting over a shoulder injury. There wasn’t a spot for me on their roster, so when my coach in Des Moines asked me where I wanted to go, I instantly thought of Tony and the Tornado.” He’s had a lasting impact on his players and is an institution in Dallasarea youth and junior hockey. In the midst of a hockey career which has taken him all throughout North America, Tony Curtale has a chance to have his name atop the United States junior hockey record books. “I’ve been fortunate enough to make a living coaching the sport I love,” Curtale said. “And more importantly, fortunate enough to meet and work with a lot of great people along the way.” ■
Tony Curtale
Dailen Haapanen, John Yonce, Tommy Keating, Brice Griffith, Trevor Watkins and Brady Amox celebrating after a win against Tulsa.
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Pink Out (Wolves PeeWee A) to show the support for Breast Cancer Month
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Devin Young (Wolves PeeWee A) makes a save.
Cooper Kohan and Scotty Moritz - Jedi Knights Hockey Team-Mites.
Aaron Driggs (#13) Dallas Stars Selects 16UAA Aucoin.
John Seitzler fully outstretched, saving the shot from a flying forward.
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Clint Stapp looks for his contact lens “Team Hanson” out of Richardson.
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Helping hockey families with their next move. FO
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Thomas Aldworth (From Dallas) Playing for the U-16 Boston JR. Bruins.
USA Hockey presents a new Coaching Education Program: Online, Age-Specific Coaching Education Modules.
What It Means... If You’re a Parent...Know that your coaches will be armed with the latest information specific to your child’s age level. If You’re a Coach...You’ll have the information needed to help every player on- and office. If You’re a Player...You’ll learn from coaches who are prepared to help you be the best player you can be. For more info, visit USAHockey.com/Coaching
A number of new rule changes were approved at the recent 2011 Annual Congress of USA Hockey. All coaches, officials, players, league administrators, and member association representatives are strongly encouraged to review the Rule Change Summary prepared by USA Hockey. Also, everyone should also review closely the Rule Change Commentary prepared by Ken Reinhard, TAHA Referee in Chief. The Rule Change Summary and Ken’s Commentary are posted on the www. tahahockey.org website, so everyone should visit and review closely. The 2011-13 Official Rules of Ice Hockey is online at www.usahockey.com.
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Alex Yuk, Alliance Bantam AA, playing the boards.
2011/2012 Planned Events Nov 5 ..............................Try Hockey-for-Free Day Jan 28 .......................TAHA Winter Meeting (Dallas) Feb 10-12 ................................States Tier I & Tier II (TAHA Host in Dallas) Feb 17-19 .. USA Hockey Weekend Across America Mar 1-4 .....................................Districts Tier I (CO) Mar 2-4 ........................Districts Girls/Women (AZ?) Mar 5-7? .......Texas Cup Gold HS Champs (Dallas) Mar 16-18 ............................. TAC Boys/Girls (TBD) Mar 21-25 .................. Nationals High School (SLC) Mar 23-25 ...... Texas Cup Silver HS Champs (TBD) Mar 28-Apr 1............. Nationals Tier II Girls (Dallas) Mar 28-Apr 1...................Nationals Tier 1 & II Youth (sites vary) Mar 30-Apr 1.....Nationals Women A/B/C (site TBD) Apr 6-10 ..................Nationals Tier I Girls (site TBD) Apr 13-15 ...........National Disabled Hockey Festival (Dallas) Apr 13-17 ....... Americas HS Showcase (Pittsburgh) Apr 27-29 ...........State Adult Tournament (site TBD) May 2-6......................................... RMD PDC (SLC)
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Icemen in Pink D
eciding to join their favorite professional players, the PeeWee Icemen used pink stick tape during a recent game in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The coaches and parents added their support by wearing pink to the game and agreeing to donate $20 for each goal scored to the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. The Icemen won their game, 12-4, thereby raising $240. ■ From left to right, the Icemen are Sam Marshall, Dylan McMahon, Parker Mangone, Carson Thye, Ethan Buell, Luke Langlais, Matt Floyd, Alex Burnett, Cole Potter, Nicholas Greer, and Brennan Gerstenberger.
Dillon Lieberg (17) says “You can’t touch this” Dallas Stars Select Midget Minor AA - Aucoin
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Texas Jr. Stars players in Austin spent an afternoon playing floor ball hockey with local kids in the community.
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Ryan Taylor protecting the house... - Dallas Stars Selects Midget Minor AA - Aucoin.
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Cameron Bickford and Bob McKeon of the Aliance Bulldogs Bantam U13 – Lehtola vs. Ice Jets – Shakesby
Tornado Price Dworin fires off a shot against the California Titans in the NAPHL Blaine Showcase
Trevor McLain (McKinney Lightning PeeWee - Mauer)
Noah Mehr (Allen Americans) - looking up ice to make the clearing pass.
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The Rickard Report by Karen Rickard
The Great Debate: Should girls play on mixed teams or all girls’ teams?
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ow – is it November already? It seems like yesterday it was August and I was stepping on the ice with my teams for the first time. I guess time flies when you’re having fun, eh? As the hockey season continues to roll along the topic of this month’s article is an ongoing debate between girls, their parents, coaches, and hockey expert’s alike. Should girls play on an all girls team or should they play with the boys until they literally just can’t compete any longer? This question seems to come up from time to time and I recently had a parent seek my advice on this topic because he currently has his 7 year old daughter playing on a boy’s mite team. The parents are great and the little girl is definitely going to be a special hockey player one day – hopefully with the Bulldogs! The dad was explaining to me how some of the boy parents were telling him to keep her playing with the boys for as long as possible because it would give her a better opportunity at getting a college scholarship. Excuse Me? We’re talking about a 7 year old who has at least 8-10 years of development ahead of her before any kind of college conversation should come into focus. Also, it’s just a hunch, but I’m willing to bet that exactly 0% of these parents have ever played girls hockey so it’s hard for me to agree with their basis of opinion when I grew up playing competitive girls hockey as soon as the opportunity was available to me. I would like to say it served me pretty well with opportunities and memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything. It’s hard to know where to start with this one. I guess the argument is that girls should play with the boys because boys are faster, stronger, tougher, quicker, etc. Well, that’s probably only true when boys start to really leap ahead in their physiological differences in terms of height and weight. That usually happens around the bantam age group – those boys sprout up and out making it extremely difficult for girls to really keep up given their own development. They physically can’t keep up and the fear is that when hitting is introduced at the bantam age the girls can’t compete and start playing “survival hockey” instead of thriving and excelling in their development in the women’s game. If parents have a daughter playing boys hockey at the bantam or even peewee age level they need to be completely honest and real when evaluating what their daughter is getting out of the program. They should ask themselves questions such as – is my daughter getting what she needs out of the coaching? Is she a contributing player
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or just a “passenger” filling a roster spot? Does she get to play in multiple situations and get proper game experiences? Is she being accepted by her male teammates? Or is she an “outsider”? If the answer to any of these are “no” then she is missing out on a giant piece of her development as a hockey player at an age where kids soak up fundamental skills and build confidence as a foundation for future years of success and love of the game. Another side of the debate is the social aspect and development of being on a team. Think about this – if you had a son who was the only boy on an all girls team would he have more or less fun than if he were on a team with all boys? Hockey would still be fun for him, but he would be changing in his own locker room, washroom or janitor’s closet and be segregated from the rest of his team for a greater part of the coveted locker room experience. He would still get along with his teammates because they are his teammates, but would he be making life long friends? Would he be invited by teammates to activities outside of hockey? Or pool party dates in the summer? Or going to birthday parties? My guess is that it’s not likely and is that really the experience you want for your child? My point is, hockey development aside, there is a HUGE aspect of these girls’ development that parents don’t even know their daughters are missing. Through no fault of their own, they are thinking, “My kid is having fun and enjoying herself so why would I change anything?” But what if you could give your daughter an experience you didn’t even know was there? What if your daughter played on an all girls team and learned to really excel in her skill development in the women’s game of hockey? What if she became this completely different and awesome person you didn’t even know was there because she couldn’t be her real self on a boy’s team? What if there was this new confidence and empowerment your daughter developed because she could be herself around other girls who love competitive hockey just as much as she does? I see this happen season in and season out – girls who come play with us grasp this new found confidence and run with it. Each and every one of our girls at Alliance has played boy’s hockey and not one of them is going back. Now back to this whole scholarship question. First of all this shouldn’t be the focus of any parent who has a daughter under the age of 15.
Coach Karen is currently the Head Coach of the Alliance Bulldogs 12U & 14U Girls Teams. She grew up in Bowmanville, ON Canada, currently resides in Dallas, TX and played Division I Women’s College Hockey at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
The focus up until the 2nd year bantam age group needs to be solely on skill & athlete development, training the competitive mind, with a little team strategy tossed in. Once they are 14 or 15 then we can start talking about college scholarships & recruiting, but the last time I checked I never saw or heard of a girl getting recruited if they played boys hockey. Why would women’s college coaches go to a boy’s hockey tournament to watch one girl? It’s just not worth their time when they can expend the same amount of resources and see hundreds of potential recruits at a single girl’s hockey tournament. On top of all this, if you have a daughter who says she wants to play college hockey then I would get her on a girl’s team sooner then later. The recruiting process starts earlier than you think it does. At this time of year, college coaches have already signed players for 2012-2013, have verbal commitments from those who will play in 2013-2014, have unofficial visits lined up for the next recruiting class, and have 20 others on the list to talk to once they are allowed to by the NCAA. There are always a few last minute adds and deletes, but if I were a player I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where I’m waiting to find out if another player accepted an offer or not to know if I would make the team. Take control of the recruiting process for yourself and the best way you can do that is play on an all girls team , master the women’s game, and open up the communication with people who have the right connections. Best in Hockey, Karen Rickard ■
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BEHIND THE BENCH By Mark Dyslin
We Need Fun
T
he phrase “Olly Olly Oxen Free” means: a) the lite, fat-free version of Olly Olly Oxen (“mmmm, that’s tasty Olly Olly Oxen, hon!”) b) with the purchase of the Coach Op Art purse and Mini Skinny, you get one of these at no charge c) the chant used to free Nelson Mandella’s third cousin, once removed, from prison d) a phrase used during a game of “kick the can” declaring it was safe to come out of hiding. If you chose D you chose wisely. If you guessed D, you got lucky and probably aren’t old enough to have ever used that phrase. For the AARP crowd, it’s a reminder of how we used to have fun. Our games had some pre-defined rules, but mostly we had “parameters.” Game standards changed all the time and for no good reason other than “because.” Kids made up the rules and negotiated terms (for hours sometimes). Often our activities were an amalgam of other reputable games. We valued our freedom to make stuff up. Whatever sounded fun is how we rolled. Our favorite summer game was “meadow” baseball. No backstop, no real bases (we scrounged for wood scraps), and the entire field was covered in 2 foot high prairie grasses (read: weeds). We had base paths only if Perry McWilliams was able to sneak his dad’s lawn mower out of the garage. If you could hit a ball in the outfield gap you were assured a home run because it took longer to find the ball than to round the bases. However, if the outfielder called “sucker hit”, you had to stop at second...or third, whichever you could adjudicate. In winter, we played hockey anywhere and anyway we could. We played mukluk-hockey in my driveway (mukluks are rubber over-boots). After several weeks the driveway snow transformed into ice and we had our poor-boy version
Lance Szeremet (Wolves Squirt B)
of a backyard rink. For “regulation” size ice we went to the pool. The village would flood the public pool parking lot yielding two hockey rinks. There were no hours of play or scheduled ice times. No parents or organizers of fun. We “structured” our game by imitating Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Pierre Pilote, and Keith Magnuson. We figured if they were pros we should play like them. Most of didn’t played “organized hockey” until high school. As a parent-coach, I worry we’re squeezing creativity out of our kids. Think about it: kids spend a lot of time in scheduled, defined activities. Practices, games, even “openhockey” are preplanned; not when the child wants to play, but when s/he has to play. From their first experience on ice, they are being told what to do. Of course there’s value in structured events like beginners being taught proper skating techniques. But there has to be a balance. We need to back-off some and let the kids to do their thing. Learn through self-realization. Learn through play, pure and simple. Find time every practice for the kids to create...stuff. Spend 10 minutes during practice playing “pond-hockey”. Let the kids practice their shoot-out skills and encourage trick shots. I cringe when I think back on the times I would get on the kids for doing goofy things during the shoot-out. A golden opportunity to inspire creativity and I blew it! Mix small area games into your practices and turn the kids loose. Encourage kids to take chances by doing something new. Over teaching, especially at the younger levels, will only produce robots: they’ll only do what’s safe and preprogrammed. They’ll only do things that won’t get them in trouble. If we continue to squeeze the fun out of hockey, the Alexander Ovechkin’s of the world will disappear. ■
Ref Layton gets ready for a face-off
20 Keep your kids out of hot water – put them on ice!
Mark Dyslin has been coaching youth sports for over 15 years and coaching youth hockey since 1999. He is currently one of the coaches for St. Mark’s Junior Varsity Hockey Team.
Tornado 14U Coach Tom Murphy talks with the team between periods.
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Keep your kids out of hot water – put them on ice! 21
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Wolves host USA Hockey Girls’ Hockey Day October 2nd, 2011 at Polar Ice House Grapevine
Akari Kubo (Wolves Squirt B) having too much fun!!
Wolves hosts and hostesses for the USA Hockey Girls’ Hockey Day
Wolves and participants
22 Keep your kids out of hot water – put them on ice!
Naya Penn (Wolves Squirt B) hopping over sticks
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Keep your kids out of hot water – put them on ice! 23