Fortuitous Hockey Transition

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There is plenty of bad blood between myself and our old lame hockey program, most of it (of course) on my side. Yes, I have issues. Whatever be the case, it motivated me to encourage N to change programs, and change we did. It was an unusual move on mine and N's part because he grew up in the old lame program, and I was heavily involved in it as board member, scheduler, and coach. What a fool I was.

Moving to the big city program was not a simple decision because of all that shared history, and let's face it, with the exception of a few bad apples, I like everyone else over there. Plus, in the past, I was disdainful of the big city program because my impression was that they were too intense and competitive. It's an Ivy League town, so they don't mess around. As it turns out, my impressions were incorrect, but more on this later.

N had no interest in the past moving over, and he didn't take last season's slight as such a big deal, so he wasn't bitter like his dad. However, the future didn't look so bright for the old lame program's team, the same one that N would have been on. For every year that he has played over there, there has always been a wide range of skills on the team, from guys who are good to guys who can literally barely skate. This season was shaping up to be more of the same, and the prospect of playing with one annoying (as heck) kid in particular finally nudged N to agree to play with the big city program. The reality was that nothing was going to change without his consent.

Well, in an odd, if not slightly cruel, twist of irony, this annoying kid ended up moving over the big city program, as well. Fortunately, because he is reasonably lacking in skills, he ended up on a different team. I'll leave it at that. In a way it worked out fine because we still run into said kid, but we don't have to deal with, or for that matter, interact on any serious level. I'm fine with that.

And, as I mentioned, my impressions of the big city program were incorrect. The parents are not intense like I thought they'd be, and are friendly and likeable. In fact, they are more laid back than many of the parents in our old lame program. The kids are nice, as well. While I'm not in the locker room, I'm under the impression that there's not as much of the alpha-male thing going on, along with the deification of said alpha males by their weaker followers (N has confirmed this). Definitely more of that going on in our old lame program. N's current team seems to operate, socially and athletically, on a pretty even playing field, and they seem to get along. Not so much in a best-friend sort of way, but they're decent kids with egos in check... for the most part.

It's good, too, because these are the kids he'll see in school, and maybe even play with on various teams. Who knows? Finally, as usual, a lot of these guys play lacrosse, so N could shift over to the big city lax program and see some familiar faces. We'll see how things go on this front.

One last fortuitous note about the big city program is that, for whatever reason, almost all of the teams that they play are located near the capital of NH, Concord. This means that most of the away games are only a one hour drive away, unlike going up to St. Albans, Highgate, and even Burlington, which are all closer to 2 hours. And, his girlfriend (can I call her that?) lives near Concord, so we're there pretty often and he can visit her and hang out.

How's that for serendipity? I have to say, all in all the shift to the big city program has worked out on many levels, but mostly because we don't have to spend time around our old lame program. I love when that happens.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Steve Dommer for the pic.