Waaaay too early.....

I thought that once we got to Atom the 6:00 AM practices were over - NOT!! And to add further pain to the misery, it is pouring rain. Nothing says Fall hockey in Canada like a 6:00 AM practice in a driving rain storm.

So here I sit, my Timmies in hand, surrounded by otber sleepy-eyed parents watching the Coaches putting the kids through their paces.

It is a suprizingly up-tempo practice considering the hour. All the kids seem to have a little jump in their step......oh to be young again.


Once this wraps up it's back he to finish preparing for Quinn's Birthday party....yes, it is a large day in the Gavin household.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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First Practice.....

The first practice of the new year is in the books.  Coach Hunter runs a great practice.  High intensity drills with and without pucks with lots of skating practice.  For the first time ever, we now have a dedicated goalie and they got some one-on-one practice when the skaters were doing their skating drills.

One thing that became very evident to me this year, is that having a massive horizontal style hockey bag is not very practical at all....there just isn't enough room for all those bags in the dressing room and we were at the Sensplex today.  One of the smaller rinks would really be tight.

That said, I bit the bullet and bought Quinn a new GRIT vertical style bag....they are very neat, check it out.



Quinn wasn't stellar today in practice, he needs to pay more attention to how the Coach wants the drills done and spend less time goofing around with his friends.  We will have a 'chat' about this and I'm sure it will get better.....the year is new and the lads are all still filled with excitement.

Practice at 6:00 AM tomorrow *BOOO!*

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Tthe verdict is in....

So the coaches have met, compared their notes and rendered their decisions....

We got an email today from Coach Hunter who was pleased to welcome Quinn to the Atom B2 Team!! Quinn was very excited to make a B Team in his first year in Atom and I a very proud Dad who is happy for his boy.

Alas the time for excitement of over and tt is time to get back to work.  We have 9:00 and 6:00 AM practices this weekend *Groan*

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Time to strutt your stuff....

Week 2 of sort-outs was to consist of two controlled scrimmages where the coaches would validate their assessments from the week before.  They would be specifically looking for kids that excelled and those who had troubles keeping up.  After that, the boys would be sorted into the various divisions and assigned teams.

Game 1 was a real eye opener for the "Green" team as they were pounded pretty good by the "White" team.  From what we were able to determine from talking to some of the other parents, the White team was made up primarily of 2nd year Atom players while the Green team was mostly first year players...let's just say that it showed.  Quinn was floating a bit at the blueline during his shifts, and when he grabbed the puck and tried to rush it up ice, he was being caught and stripped of the puck.  He wasn't used to this as he was one of the faster kids in Novice and could stick handle around most of the other players - we had a 'Chat' after the game.

Game 2 was a more of the same, although the younger Green team put up a much stronger fight, especially earlier on.  Quinn had a much better game, much stronger positionally and he really ramped up his work ethic (aka no floating).  He buddy Brad had a good game as well, really sticking to his position and skating hard.

All in all I was left with absolutely no idea where the boys would end up.  Based on the caliber of the two teams that we saw play, I was leaning towards Quinn being placed on an Atom C team - which is fine, as long as he is challenged and can continue to develop his skills.

Time will tell

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And so it begins...

 The 2009-2010 Minor Hockey Season started on September 12.  Things kick-off with 4 days of sort-outs spread out over two weekends.  The first Saturday was a solid hour of skating drills sans the puck. Quinn did quite well in the skating drills - Summer hockey school really helped to get him used to being on the ice. Still, with all of the 10 year olds (he just turned 9 and is in his first year of Atom) he didn't standout.... Not like last year when he was the 'old guy' in Novice.

The Sunday of the first week of sort-outs saw the boys doing the same drills but this time with the puck.

Things didn't go as smoothly this time and my heart sank as I watched Quinn totally butcher a drill where they needed to do sharp turns around each of the 9 face-off dots. Not a great showing of his stick-handling or his listening skills...

So with that the skills assessment portion of sort-outs was over. Each boy will be assigned a numerical score for their performance and they will move on to two controlled scrimmages to see if there are any kids who really stand out as being exceptionally good or exceptionally not so good.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

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