Rural Hockey Tournament

Every year the rural hockey season ends with a two day tournament in Fort St. John.  This event is a big deal for the kids.  They get to play their games at the Pomeroy Sports Centre and they get prizes.  For the kids that live further out in Prespatou and Buick they often get to stay overnight in a hotel as well.  That is a big deal for a kid from the sticks.

Upper Pine was supposed to have their ski trip yesterday and the school would have been pretty empty.  As such, I requested that our games get played all on Thursday.  This way, our school would not have to pay for a substitute teacher.  I am the only coach that is a teacher, so this seemed like an easy way to solve the problem.  Mother Nature likes to have her fun, however and did so yesterday as well.  The temperature at the hill (and in town) was -19 without the windchill.  It was closer to -30 with the windchill.  Thus the ski trip was canceled.  Luckily, Mrs. Holland, my principal called in a sub for me and I was able to be at the tournament with the kids.  Props to Mrs. Holland.

We played three games yesterday, all about an hour apart.  My team played really hard and had a lot of fun.  Our results were unfortunate.  We scored a total of three goals over three games and we had about 30 goals against.  The scores were not unexpected, but a little sad all the same.

However, nearly every player on my team has shown improvement over the course of the season.  The team has practiced hard throughout the season.  It was gratifying to watch kids that could barely stand on skates at the beginning of the season zip around during the games.  Oh sure, they still wiped out a shockingly consistent basis, but that is too be expected.  Rome wasn't built in a day.

In addition, at the end of the day, nearly every parent came up to me, shook my hand and told me that they appreciated the work I had done and that their kids had a great time.  Most of the kids came and thanked me too!  Often, just knowing your efforts are appreciated is often enough of a reward.

So, that's it for rural hockey until next year.  I'm glad it's done, and I'll probably complain next year when I'm freezing my cheeks off at some outdoor rink, but it was worth it in the end.