Captain N

I have to impose upon you a moment of shameless parental pride, but N was named as one of the captains of his team. In the past his teams have usually passed on naming a captain for whatever reason, and I think it had probably been for the best. As was told to me by IC, hockey player extraordinaire, most teammates choose the best player to be captain, when in fact the captain really needs to be a leader and not just a skilled player.

Whatever be the case, N's coaches, who again are hockey real-deal studs (and more importantly, not dads), told the team that they would choose captains, and I wasn't sure how N felt about that. He did mention it, and he also mentioned it again on the day that they were going to announce it, so I think it was on his mind. From my own (completely unbiased and objective) perspective, I think he would make a good captain because he is unselfish and a true team player. He goes out there and always works hard and tries to encourage his teammates to work hard, as well. This didn't seem to work out on his team last year with our old lame program because most of the guys had crappy attitudes and only cared about their own personal glory, i.e., scoring goals. As a defenseman, N tends not to lean this way, In fact, in my once again objective and unbiased opinion, he is a leader on the ice, he's just not as magnetic and “larger than life” personality off the ice. He lets his abilities do the talking.

In support of this, this year his coaches saw it fit to make him an alternate captain. When you watch a hockey game in the NHL, one player has a “C” on his jersey, and as you all know, he's the captain. Two other players have an “A” on their jersey, and they're the alternate, or co-captains. That's N.

I'm not sure what the point of it all is, but I think it's a bit of an honor that N is rightfully proud of. At the very least it indicates that the coaches recognize some level of skill and leadership in our boy, and that's good enough for me.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Mark Mauno for the pic.