End of Season - What's a Mom to do?

St. Paddy's day brings lots of thing - green beer, all things Irish and probably for many - a good hangover on the 18th. Today also brings the announcement we have all been expecting - the TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS have been officially eliminated from the 2015 playoffs. As a lifelong fan - back when I was a child, you either rooted for the Leafs or the Habs. Who ever your dad rooted for, was usually who you rooted for. With only a couple of channels available you didn't have much choice on what games you watched.
 Today with specialty channels, dedicated hockey channels as well as the CBC there are so many more game options for you to watch. My favourite is still watching my kids at the local rink or even watching them play shinny on our backyard pond. As the weather warms up, the pond rink is now under a foot of melted snow. My son's team has finished their season - the coach will be having some practices and maybe entering them into a tournament to keep them in shape for tryouts in April. My daughter's team still has 2 more weekends of hockey - Championship games and then they will be having tryouts for next year.

So what to do now? For the last week we have had our evenings free. It has been wonderful. I have been able to do my homework and not have stay up until past midnight to get it done. During hockey season I basically got home from school, picked up a kid, headed to the arena, got home between 9 and 10 and then I could start my homework. Being able to start homework at 7pm has been great although I still find myself staying up, thinking there is something I am forgetting to do because I was done so early.

By mid April I will done school - hopefully with a job to go to. The next phase of my life will begin and I am looking forward to it. I am looking forward to having my evenings and weekends free of homework. First thing on my agenda is to do a massive clean up. All the hockey equipment will go in the washer for a good   "de-stink" and hung up outside in the fresh spring air to dry. It will then be packed up - waiting for next season and the back door area will also be de-cluttered of all hockey stuff and become presentable for people to actually come in and out the back door. Room by room we will tackle the house as a family. Between hockey and school, the house has been neglected so we need to get it back in shape. Hopefully we will have more time to have friends over, so I'd like the house to be presentable.

Next, I plan to visit my local bookstore and get a whole pile of books and read for the fun of it again. At New Years with my girlfriends who all like to knit, I started an afghan so I want to get back to it and finish that off. I need to paint the outside of my house, stain the deck, paint the bathroom ceiling and finish writing my husbands honey-do list. Gee what will I ever do without hockey???

Congratulations Caledon Coyotes Midget B Girls Hockey Team!!

Go Coyotes!

 

 

Wow, what a proud moment for a hockey mom! The Caledon Coyotes' Midget B hockey team is going to not only the Provincial Championship Weekend, but also the Lower Lakes Championship Weekend.

The Caledon Coyotes play in the OWHA - Ontario Women's Hockey Association. They play 22 regular season games. They ended the season - a season filled with lots of injuries - in second place with a record of 13-4-5. Well done ladies!

To get to the Provincial Championship Weekend, they had to play Mount Forest, Halton Hills, Grand River and Orangeville. The top 2 teams advanced to the Championship weekend. Caledon advanced with 5-0-3 record along with Mount Forest (6-0-2). Caledon and Mount Forest tied in both of their meetings. In all 24 teams from across the province advanced to the Provincial Championship Weekend April 10-12, 2015. The tournament will be held all over the GTA. Come and check out the games - there will be great female hockey in the GTA that weekend.

Today, the Coyotes clinched their berth in the Lower Lake Championship Weekend March 27-28. The Coyotes play in the Central Look of the LLFHL - Lower Lakes Female Hockey League. To get to the Championship, the Coyotes defeated a team from North York (2-1-0), Etobicoke (2-0-0) and Georgina (2-0-1). Four teams advanced to the Lower Lake Championship - Way to go Coyotes TOP 4 - Central Champions! If you are in Oshawa  come out to see some great hockey!

I am very proud of these young ladies. At the beginning of the season they challenged themselves - they wanted nothing less than going to the Championship weekends. For many of the girls, this is then end of their competitive hockey careers. Next year they will be off on a new adventure in college or university or whatever else they plan to pursue. For these girls, going to Provincials is something they have always wanted to and have yet to accomplish. They made the plan and the commitment back in October to work hard and be a team and go all the way. Mission accomplished!

Due to conflicting schedules with my son's hockey, I missed a lot of their games but I have seen such a great improvement with this team. They are a team, you can see they unity on the ice, you can see it off the ice. Sure, like any family they have their problems - it is not always a bed of roses, but when it  comes down to it, when it is important - the girls have each others backs.  I am proud of these girls and I am proud of my husband who is their coach. He has put in countless hours planning practices, dryland training, scheduling games, soothing ruffled feathers and trying to instill hockey sense into the girls. As frustrated as he has been with referees, schedulers other teams, his team giving poor effort, he has always praised his girls and given them a happy smile. Way to go coach!







Keeping Warm - Watching Hockey

There is no denying it, watching a hockey game is cold. But I would rather be cold in an arena then cold out on a soccer pitch with the wind and the rain. At least in an arena it is only cold there isn't precipitation - unless less you are in Hillsburgh Arena. I have actually seen it snow inside above the stands. It is so cold in that arena - even in summer - that all the moisture from people in the stands breathing will freeze and become snow.

So what to do to keep warm?

Well, there are always hat and gloves or mittens. I highly recommend some kind of hand covering. You can even put a couple of hand warmers in your mitts for added warmth. Many teams have there own winter hats with team logos that you can buy. Not only will it keep you warm but it will also let everyone know who you are cheering for.


I made these scarves for my kids teams.

Are you crafty? Even if your aren't, you can make yourself a team scarf in no time at all. Get about a 1.5m of fleece in each your team colours. Make each strip about 15cm wide. Put the layers together, sew down the middle. Cut strips about 3 cm wide - careful not to go all the way to the middle, along each side of the scarf and voila you have a team scarf that is not only full of team spirit but is also very warm.

Bring a blanket. I use to always bring 2. One to sit on, because lets face it, those benches can be cold, especially like those metal benches in the green rink at the  Alder Arena. What were you thinking arena builder? Another blanket to cover my legs. I hate being cold so I didn't mind lugging the blankets around. I kept them in a little bag so it was no problem. I often shared with others who didn't bring blanket. That is just what you do.

A hot beverage will also help warm you up. Not only does it keep your hands warm, but it warms up the inside of you too. It is not uncommon to see a lot of Timmie's cups at the arena. I am not a coffee drinker, but if you can support the local small town arena. It would be a shame to see those small, business go under.

Cat not included

But my all time favourite way to stay warm is thanks to my hubby. Every arena I go to, somebody asks me about it so I thought I would share it here. It is call a Toast Skirt . My husband saw it on TV, the creator of the skirt was on a local breakfast show.  It is fabulous. Now I don't have to bring
blankets with me, it is perfect for those arenas that don't have seating or really crappy seating so you have to stand in order to watch the game. It is perfect for anytime you have to be outside in the cold. The creator was working on movie sets when then idea came to her. Having worked as a background actor, it gets pretty cold standing around, on an outside shoot in between shots. I remember seeing lots of hair and makeup women wearing them and thought it was a great idea. So when I open it up at Christmas, I was so happy.

Here is to staying warm at the arenas. My daughters team is going to the Provincials so I still have lots of hockey left to watch!

Hockey Bonds - Friends for Life

photo courtesy www.tsn.ca

My son turned 14 last week and his guest list for his birthday dinner made me think. Everyone he invited were former teammates. He didn't want anyone from school, he just wanted his hockey buddies from his former teams. His reasoning was simple - "I see my school friends everyday, I see my current team friends almost everyday, so I want to spend my birthday with the guys I don't see as much as I would like." So I started thinking about the friends made from playing sports. How many of your friends did you grow up with playing hockey or soccer or baseball?

My husband grew up playing hockey. One of his best friends is a former teammate - they met through playing on the same team. For over thirty years they have remained friends. They still on occasion play together in various men's team. They still like playing together. They were defensive partners as kids and when they play together now they like it because they still know where and how each other will play. In life they have each others backs and will always be their for the other.

In part that is what hockey, and all sports teach kids. You need to be there for your team. Give it your best and have you teammates back. In life, you be there for your family and friends - have their back and know that they will have yours.

I also realize that hockey has not only produced some great friends for my kids but also for my husband and myself. There really is such a thing as a hockey family - dysfunctional maybe - but still family. Some of my closest friends I have met through hockey. I would do anything for them and know that they would do the same. We care for each other children and hope for the best for all of them. A lot of my kid's hockey friends jokingly call me mom. When they come over to our house they are treated like my own kids, which means I don't wait on them, they can help themselves to food and drinks and they clean up after themselves. After having my son's friends over for his birthday, I realized I missed these boys as much as my son had. The season is almost over, so maybe we will find some time to get together with all our hockey friends - some place warm maybe.

Coaches

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Every hockey team needs a coach. There are good coaches and there are bad coaches and coaches that fall in between.  I have seen them them all. Luckily, my children have had pretty good coaches throughout their hockey experiences. I haven't always agreed with the coaching strategies, I haven't always agreed with some of the coaching decisions or actions towards the players but on a whole, I would say that the coaches my children have had, despite their flaws have had the children's best interests in mind. Although I have already said it to them directly, I will do so again here,  to all those coaches, and to all coaches in general who give up their time to pass on their wisdom to the next generation I say thank you.

It is only two words but it is amazing how difficult it seem for people to say them. It seems to be very easy for people to criticize the coach, say what he/she should be doing differently and how the coach isn't treating their child like a star. These parents usually have one thing in common - they never say thank you and they never volunteer to help out the coach.

For the last three years I have been the manager for my daughters hockey team. It is a lot of work. From collecting team fees, budgeting, banking, paying for ice, refs, tournament and other costs that arrive to scheduling games and reporting scores. Since I am in school full time, work and have two children in rep hockey I knew going into the season that I could not do the full manager's job - so I am only a part time manager taking care of only the financial part of the job. Unfortunately, no other parent was willing to step up to help out so the coach is doing the other half of the manager's job as well as coaching. It is a tremendous amount of work - work that is unrecognized by a lot of parents.

There is a lot of planning - what drills to do in practice, what player should go on what line, strategy for games, disciplines, dryland, what tournaments to go into, motivation, etc. My husband is my daughter's coach/manager. He spends a good 2-3 hours after work dealing with hockey things. He can get over 200 emails a day dealing with scheduling of games and player absences and this is not including the time he spends at the arena for practices and games. Majority of the parents don't say thank you to him for this time spent, majority don't step up when he asks for help. Good coaches are hard to find and hard to keep when they don't feel appreciated. All it takes is two words. Thanks coach!

Below is a letter a friend had posted on his Facebook page. He had gotten it from a friend of his. This friend had clipped the letter from a newspaper some 30 years ago. The author is unknown, but the message is wonderful. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Is there a coach that changed your life? What made him/her special?

Family Day

February 16, 2015 is Family Day in Ontario. A day legislated to spend with your family. For many years my son has taken part in a tournament in Rochester or Pittsburgh on this weekend. It is usually great fun spending the weekend with our hockey family. The boys and their siblings have great fun playing mini sticks (yes even at minor bantam), swimming if the coach and time permits, and basically just hanging out with each other. Parents usually find themselves in someone's room participating in a beverage or two, talking about the day's games or about the shopping success at the local outlet mall. All in all a good time is had by all. However, aside from the car rides to and from the arena and the drive to and from home there is not a lot of immediate family time. In other years, even if there is not a tournament there has usually been a game or a practice scheduled.


For the first time in years, we have no hockey scheduled AT ALL today! YAY!

"What?" you say, "You are happy at having no hockey today?" Why yes I am - even a hockey mom likes to have some time off from the arena to do something else. We actually have outside interests and/or responsibilities to take care of.


Prior to my children getting heavily into rep hockey I did community theatre. I loved it. It got me out of the house (I was working from home providing daycare), and I got to be me - not a mother, not a wife but me. The people I acted with were amazing and we became our own team. As the hockey participation level increased I only tried out for the fall show or the spring show. That way there wasn't a lot of overlap between rehearsals and practices. Well my son got on a very successful team that went all the way in the OMHAs and actually won. I was in a spring show (so rehearsals ran Feb-April) and I found my mind was unable to concentrate at rehearsal if a game was going on. I mean it was playoffs. If a deciding game conflicted with a rehearsal - I missed the rehearsal. That was the last spring show I did. It's not fair to cast members if I am not committed to the role.


For a few years I did some shows in the fall. But with 2 kids in rep hockey and a husband who travelled a lot for his job it became too stressful trying to coordinate rides, concentrate on learning lines and feeling like I was letting my kids down but not watching their game. So I have stopped doing theatre - especially since I have gone back to school full time and I have a lot of homework. Between the two, who has time for learning lines. In a year or so I will get back to it when the kids are no longer so in to hockey but for now I am putting my creative energy to improv. It is great - all the thrill of acting without any memorizing or committing to rehearsals 3 nights a week and then more close to opening night. It is a great night of fun and laughter. I have met some wonderful and talented people and hope to one day get as good as them. I have performed with both GLIC in Georgetown and Oakville Improv. They are amazing people. If you ever have the opportunity to watch improv - do it you will enjoy yourself. Better yet, if you have the chance to try improv DO IT!


But today is family day. My day to spend with my family - because I want to, not because the government says I have to.  I have worked hard all weekend to get my homework done, there is no hockey so I can spend it with the family playing board games, having a hot tub, maybe some xbox connects. It will be great - except I am stuck in Markham waiting for a tow truck to take my car home. Estimated time of arrival anywhere between 10 and 4pm. Ahhh good times.

Happy Family Day everyone - may you be spending it with whoever you consider family!

Hockey Heroes

Every player, every fan has their hockey hero. Maybe the hero had a shot that could not be stopped. Maybe denfense is more your style and you look up to those who manned the blue line. Or maybe you look up to those crazy guys who have pucked fired at them at breakneck speeds. Hockey has produced some great players to look up to.

Wickenheiser & Campbell www.cbc.ca

I of course have my favourite players. I love Hayley Wickenheiser and Cassie Campbell. They, and all the members of the Canadian Women's hockey team have done a lot to promote hockey for girls. Girls hockey is growing at a great speed and the skill is amazing. When I was a girl, there weren't hockey leagues for girls where I grew up. It was hard for a girl to play in boys hockey - my fav movie Hockey Night was all about that. Today, leagues are popping up and growing all over.  Within an hours drive from my house there are at least 10 Girls hockey associations. It is an amazing opportunity for girls to be able to play with their peers, to be part of a team and play our game.

On the male side of hockey I have a number of players from the NHL that I admire - and not just for their playing ability but for things they have done for their communities and for promoting hockey. Bobby Hull is one of those players. He had a summer house where I grew up and he often came out to support charity events - talk to the crowds and sign autographs. He came to the dedications ceremony for our new ball field and high fived me as I came into home on my home run. It was a little thing but it made my day. I love watching Sidney Crosby, and I loved watching Messier, Gretzky and Lemiuex. But right now my favs and just starting out. I call them my boyz, because I'm that old.
 Most of them I started watching them at the World Junior Championships. For whatever reason I felt a connection watching them.

Eberle 5.4  tsn.ca

My first boy is Jordan Eberle. When he tied the game 2009 against Russia with 5.4 seconds left in the semi-final World Jr. game I sprang from the couch - launching my sleepy son across the room. I knew right then Canada would be victorious in the overtime period and my boy came through again. That year, along with Eberle, Taylor Hall joined my list.

Domi loving the game tsn.ca

At this years tournament, Max Domi smiled his way onto my list. Whether he was hitting or getting hit he always had a smile on his face. Then there was the goals. That tongue - what a goof. He looked like he truly enjoys playing the game which made me enjoy watching him play.

But one of my favourite hero of all time is not a player at all; but a dad - Walter Gretzky. In his youth he was a skilled hockey player but at 5'9" he was considered too small. His son - Wayne is considered by many to be the greatest hockey player ever - has credited the coaching he got from his dad for his success. So why is he my hero? He loves the game. He has lent his name to many tournaments and he comes and watches the kids play. He talks to them, coaches them and signs autographs and smiles happily at getting his picture taken with them. Wayne has been out of the NHL for a long time and yet Walter probably has as much of a following as his superstar son - maybe more.

Walter Gretzky & I - 2008 WTEBC

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gretzky in 2008. I was participating in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer 60km walk. My team and I finished and were waiting in the holding area for the closing ceremonies. My friend Elaine - who is not a hockey person - but I love her anyway - spotted him and said "Isn't that Gretzky's dad?" May friend Sharon and I squealed  "Oh my God, YES!" After deliberating whether we should approach him or not we finally did and I am so glad I did. For two hours I talked hockey with him. Hockey, his daughter who was walking as well (that is why he was there, to congratulate her when she finished), his sons and grandchildren, my children, etc. were all topics we covered. Our conversations were interrupted by other fans wanting pictures but he returned to our conversation every time. I was surprised that he stuck around but he's just that cool. He is funny and a bit of a cad - he definitely loved the ladies fawning over him. Despite his fame, he is a pretty normal guy - proud of his children and loving life. He is a big supporter of his community, CNIB and minor hockey.  My daughter is playing in the Walter Gretzky Tournament this March. I hope I see him again.