Being a Hockey Parent

[E.J.]

After taking a 2-1 lead, now down 3-4 after two.... 15 minutes to go!!!

[Ahbroody]

Oldest girl idolizes big brother. Now they do judo and hockey together. They have a free roller class right after his travel team practice. She wants to do ice, but I told her just like brother she has to do roller first for a while.
Cool thing was didnt have to spend a penny on new gear as we just reused brothers.

[E.J.]

Nice, Mike! Looking good....

[Ahbroody]

Switched over to reeboks. Seems happy said felt great. Skated a little off, but I guess thats to be expected.

Hockeygiant opening in san jose on the 16th. Wooooot.

They were taking some on ice pics in case you are wondering why in full uniform for pracy

[Ahbroody]

Spring summer time hockey.
No one close outside of the a $$hole coach he refuses to play for has a mite summer team. We now have to try to get him a redshirt on either the summerhawks (blackhawks summer team) squirt team or the Seals (jr sharks summer team) squirt team. Talked to Curtis Brown who runs the seals. Said he may let him redshirt after roster established. No idea on summerhawks.

Not sure if he will play competitive roller next year. Something has to give between travel ice, inhouse ice, travel roller and judo. He likes roller because the coaches and kids, but doesn't like playing roller that much. He wants to do baseball now that Hawks is ending. Uuuuuuugh

[E.J.]

Yep, things winding down here and starting to look at what we are going to do this Summer. Sure it will end up a lot like last year.... High School Summer League for the LM, 3-3 for the Little One, which generally is locked up in soccer, which is going to ramp up(not that she isn't already playing on 2 indoor teams right now)....

Did he play baseball last year, cannot remember?

[E.J.]

Had the last practice of the season for the Lady Lightning, last night. Last practice for the house league tomorrow night(parents vs kids game).....then final game on Saturday. The older one is done with Jr. Grizzlies and HS.... WOW....I said winding down above, but for some reason thought we had a little more time.... Nope, season is done at this house Saturday around 3:00......

[E.J.]

Nooooooooooooo!

[E.J.]

^^^(mistake post, meant for NHL thread)

[E.J.]

Played a player vs. parent game against my Mights tonight.... Thighs burning, sweat covered back....really? That said, so fun! Great kids, great parents, great season!

[Ahbroody]

Nice. We didnt do that this year.
My thighs are burning though. The little man has picked up a weird habit of not getting low anymore and his stride has shortened and he is losing speed. I think its a roller hockey thing. The roller hockey court is shorter and narrower so they dont need to have as much speed as they need to be quick. Short quick strides often work better. Spent time in the garage and driveway using roller blades funny enough going over stride mechanics. Work in progress, but I he did see that getting low allowed for fewer longer strides which generated more speed.

His coach also told me he needs to start shooting from further out to take advantage of his hard shot. He loves to dangle (toe drag junkie), deeke and get in close on the goalie. Coach was saying while its easy now its going to get harder to do in the coming years so.........

Lastly need to start introducing some light cardio with him. Abby plays soccer so you dont have the issue, but he gets gased at times. So yeah fun spring and summer for me.

He played his last travel game of season and of course wouldnt have been complete without a beautiful shoulder check that sent the other kid horizontal into the boards. It really was pretty. The other kif had a wtf just happened look on his face.

[E.J.]

Little Man is at State Camp, went up and watched for an hour today. Some great players there, he's getting a workout... Interested to see what the evaluation says...

[E.J.]

Wow... Was looking at who this kid is, who I thought was the best kid on the ice, turns out he is a local kid who'd be playing for our HS if he wasn't billeting in Colorado to play. Looks like he's trying to get on(goal, he's 15) the USA U17 National team(think it's U17??).

Long story short.... Kid is GOOD and he's a Murray kid and I'd never even heard of him because he left the State for better competition.

[Ahbroody]

Yeah scary when you see how good some kids are. Was like when we went down to LA for ice or when our inline team played the LA inline team. In fairness to the boys our inline goalie is not much and had his worse game ever. We likely could have beat the LA team with a decent goalie. Just puts everything in perspective. This weekend we played another Nor Cal inline event and mercy ruled all 5 teams very quickly.

Atleast he got the exposure and saw what he needs to shoot for.

Travel and inhouse ice are now over. Only thing that remains is roller. Looks like we got hooked up and gor on a ice power skating clinic list. They are letting us do the mite one, but also got on the list for the travel squirt skate. Trying to weasel a red shirt on a squirt summer team, but not likely unless someone does us a favor. Fair amount of ice for the spring and summer, just trying to figure out best bang for buck.

[E.J.]

Changed my mind and put the Little One in the Grizzly Spring Ice, instead of house 3-3, for her Summer ice time. It will be a big jump, as they don't do Mite, only Squirt and it will be full of travel kids....but will challenge her, which may be a good thing.... Guess we will see how she responds. Surprisingly, it is actually cheaper & more ice time.....go figure.

Oh, and the kid I mentioned above is a '96. I assumed he was 15, as he's in a grade lower than the Little Man, but when I looked at the selection stuff, he's a just a young(November) '96.

[Ahbroody]

Well spring plans are set.
Little man tried out for hawks summer squirt team and made it. In fairness they had a big turnout and were able to form 2 teams. As a first year mite I dont think he had enough juice to make the 1st team but he did look really really good. Carried the puck multiple times in scrim, deeked some kids, had some nice shots on net. Got some compliments from coaches about him. Supposed to play a tourney in L.A. end of next month. Whats awesome is he also has a roller tourney down there that weekend. Could get 2 for 1

This week and next we are doing a power skating clinic. Never been a fan of private lessons, but after talking to a few people I think clinics are often a waste. So many kids on the ice tbat instructor's cant really tweek things

[E.J.]

Congrats to Micah!

We got bad news yesterday.... HS coach and 2 assistants, all resigned. HC had been doing it for 10 years, more or less a volunteer position and I think with all the time and energy, he just decided it was time. One assistant was his brother, other was a kid he coached on the team years ago. LM was really bummed....broke down even talking about it....

[Ahbroody]

That sucks. Imagine vwey tough as will have to learn a new coach.


Two of the best 05s in the area. Very competitive relationship between these 2. M is in yellow.

New used skates. Got them off ebay for half price. Reebok 18ks $330 brand new got for about 150
Wedges installed. Loves the fit. Says most comfortable skate ever

[E.J.]

Nice win, on the skates...

Love his position on that pic! Balance/center of gravity is awesome!

[E.J.]

Apparently the Little Man was awarded the best defenseman award(team) at the Jr. Grizzlies awards banquet(we had other plans). AWESOME!!! Not sure what that is(what they give him), but the coach is going to bring it by Sunday. (they just contacted him)