Another season about to get underway. Floor hockey, this time 7-9 year olds, will start up on Saturday. This Saturday we finalized our teams. Can’t wait to get started.
It’s the last ‘jump’ season. In baseball, we moved up to the next age group, were severely outmanned, and finished 0-11. In basketball, a similar story that ended with a 2 win season. In floor hockey, I tried to intervene early in an attempt to level the playing field for us. Every team gets 4 ‘keepers’ off the bat. For coaches that were in this age bracket last year, it means keeping your four best players from last year. For new coaches to the age bracket like us, it starts with my son and the assistant coach’s son. Right off the bat, we’re talking two 7 year olds; I didn’t really have any other ‘keepers’. From talking with the park guy, I asked about our 2 other slots. With all the good players getting scooped up, I wanted a chance to wet my beak. I don’t want to stack my team by any means; I just want to give us a fighting chance. So I picked 2 kids that I knew were good: another 7 year old (potential future keeper) and my first 9 year old. I felt better heading into the draft at least having a solid first four.
The draft began. All other coaches had their first four locked, except one that had three; he got the first pick and took the obvious choice. We had the 3rd pick; I had a few kids in mind, but turns out they were already taken, all except one. Surely this kid wouldn’t fall to us at 3…he did. I immediately took him, our 2nd 9 year old; that was lucky.
The rest of the draft was a crapshoot. I had a couple girls in mind, but came up empty; I had to settle on my third choice there. I had another 7 year old kid in mind, but just lost out on him. So I grabbed a kid that has been on our baseball team for three straight years. He was so happy to be back together with my son and the other coach’s son. I ended up taking another young kid that was halfway decent and a kid that I have no idea about as my last pick. The team is set.
We missed out on the Blackhawks team name for the 3rd straight year. Our team name last year, the Golden Knights, wouldn’t have made sense with blue shirts, which was our only option. So we went with our team name from the first year; it’s the return of the Sharks!
Grabbed a new helmet for my son and a mouthpiece (mom’s order); he actually loves it. Of course seeing Patrick Kane wear one helps the cause. He’s ready to go, and thankfully he won’t be the best player on our team as a 7 year old going up against 9 year olds. It will be a different dynamic, but one that I think will be good for him, and for our team. Maybe I won’t have to try to keep his spirits up so much this season, while enduring loss after loss. Loving to win and hating to lose so much, my son should be a lot happier this year…I hope. Ready to kick the season off! Go Sharks!
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