Stumbling Through Our First Day of Hockey

Sorry for the long list of posts, I'm making up for lost time because we are so busy.

Hockey seemed like a abstract concept way back when, so I conveniently tucked it away in the back recesses of my mind, perhaps thinking I wouldn’t have to actually deal with it since I had no clue what it would be like. In other words, I had some reservations and even a little anxiety because we’d never done hockey, and you know how I get with new experiences.

Well, you can run, but you can’t hide, because sure enough, the camp arrived, and it was time for dad to deal with his life. As usual, I was poorly prepared, though it wasn’t a complete disaster. First off, a world of thanks to KB for lending us all the equipment, he really set us up. I hadn’t even checked to see if we had everything we needed, I just figured it would all be there. The night before camp began, I brought it up from the basement and figured things would work out. We also fitted his mouth guard that morning.

The major drawback of the camp is that it’s in the early AM, and N is not a morning person. We were supposed to be there at 8:30, and it takes about 20 minutes to get there. We didn’t have time to really eat breakfast, so we woke up, brushed our teeth, got a muffin and juice and hit the road. I realized I screwed up on a number of things, but live and learn, as the saying goes.

First off, we were late. They recommended getting there a little early, which I thought was crazy, because it was early enough, but clearly not for all the hockey go-getters. Plus, they all go to school, so they’re primed and ready for the early morning start. When we arrived, I was so bummed, because all the other kids were fully equipped and on the ice.

We quickly went to the locker room and got ready, and there I ran into my second big problem - I had no clue how to get all that equipment on N, and belive me when I tell you, there’s a lot of equipment. There was a mom in there who had three kids playing hockey, so she knew the drill, and helped us out. Thanks so much to her, she saved us. Also, by some miracle, we had everything he needed. It was at this point that I became aware of my biggest blunder of them all - I’d forgotten N’s hockey stick. How could I be so stupid? A player needs his stick, and we had just gotten one for him.

The camp provided one for him, so it wasn’t the end of the world, but I felt like an idiot. Through the course of the morning, I also realized he was the only kid with a different water bottle. Since they wear caged helmets, they need a water bottle with a spout that will fit in though the cage. I kept looking at all those water bottles and wondering why they all had the same ones. I chalked it up to conformity before the light bulb went on.

Once the kids were on the ice, things calmed down. The most important thing was that he had a blast, and I think he held his own fairly well considering that it was his first time playing hockey. It’s possible he was just being nice, but the coach said that based on his play, he would have never guessed that it was his first time playing hockey. BTW, the coach is friends with KB.

They went through all sorts of drills, and played small scrimmages. Again, I thought N did very well, and has some natural abilities with skating. The puck handling will take a little practice, but he’s a jock, he’ll figure it out. It was the first time for him on the ice in several months, though several of the kids out there were excellent skaters, and I wondered if they’d been skating all this time.

N was also skating on real hockey skates for the first time. He had been using his kid’s buckle skates, which have hockey blades, up until now. In a serendipitous twist of fate, our friend HH had given us a pair of hockey skates that she said they had no use for, and they fit N, so we took them. Good thing, because if he had used his old skates, he would have been the only kid out there without real hockey skates, and you don’t want to stand out too much. There’s a cool factor involved in being an athlete that you can’t ignore.

Towards the second half, mom dropped A off and got to see N in action. She had to go to work, so A and I hung out and watched. There was an open skate right after practice, so we all got to skate together.

In the end, we survived our first hockey session, though it was a serious learning experience, and a little traumatizing for dad. What else is new? We’ll be more ready the next time. Right after practice, we skated for a bit, and then headed over to Stateline Sports to get the kid’s skates sharpened and procure a new water bottle and mouth guard for N.

I’m sure that today I’ll realize I screwed something else up, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes. The most important thing is that N is loving hockey, and that’s all that matters for now.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Adam Klepsteen for the pic.