Looking good! Nice game face....
Agree, pants are a bit of a pain....ran into issues moving from Easton to Bauer and the sizing difference....
How'd you like to be listed as the first alternate....
Still in a holding pattern to see if Jackson gets a spot on Coach Oly's team or plays with the lower level. I'd say AAA and AA, but in truth, they are lot listing it like that. They are saying a combined AA/AAA, which they will enter tourneys as AAA or AA, depending on the talent level of the tourney. Then an “Elite” team that travels a little less, not sure what level of competition they will enter tourneys as…..
I was not at the parents meeting or any of the tryout stuff(out of town on a bike ride), so I don’t know what the story is, other than Jackson went in trying out for what we thought was the AA squad and got run on what we thought was the AAA squad, then they stated the above breakdown and ???? Paraphrasing what the trustee apparently said during the parents meeting. “Everyone around here just puts AA/AAA behind their name and assumes that is the level of hockey they are. Nobody is regulating that, you are what you say you are. We try to be realistic as to what we are putting on the ice, the fact is, we cannot compete with AAA teams back East and have found that out in the past, so we are not going to be listing ourselves as AAA or AA, we will have a Select and an Elite team.”
After day 2(of three) of the Jr. Grizzly tryouts, Jackson said if he didn’t make the AAA/AA, he was going to sign with the Golden Eagles(personally, my third choice, but he has friends that signed with them). He had offers from the AA Golden Eagles & AA Regulators.
Sometime after the tryout day 3 and meeting with the coaches, he decided to sign with the Grizzlies, so he is a Utah Jr. Grizzly player as of Sunday. I think after meeting with the coach, he felt really good about his plans. The question remains, if he will stay on the lower squad or get called up. As they explained, getting called up could happen within 48 hours(another kid doesn’t sign) or later, if someone gets hurt ect.
It is a ying/yang thing. I think the ice time(three 90 minute practices a week) under Oly & better competition would be huge for development. BUT the financial commitment and probability that his actual ice time in games would be limited, are a downside. Going to Chicago and Wisconsin with Oly would be pretty cool as well. His son plays for the Blackhawks and the kids get to go to a game if they’re in town, meet his son and some players ect, or at least have in the past.
Ahhhhh….whatever happens, happens…. He’s having fun and that is what counts…. Well, he loves playing hockey, he said the tryout was as tough as anything he has ever done. His mother said it was brutal physically(she is a marathon runner/triathlete) and the tension/pressure on the kids, trying to make the upper team could be felt in the air. It was NOTHING like the Eagles or Regulators tryouts, Oly is business.
How’s that for a novel….