Not sure how to survive this season because in minor hockey, luckily, I've never been here before.
Our kids have played on losing soccer teams before, but this is the first time in 11 seasons of minor hockey I've had a son who's playing on a team that can't win. Not just a losing record here. We're talking about a team that cannot expect to win a game, period.
It's a bit of a change from one year when he was on a team that went undefeated through the regular season or won an Ontario championship (of which there are many at several different levels and in many geographical areas). Nor is it like the Ontario "A" teams he was on which hit above their weight in a league of "AA" teams.
This is juvenile hockey where everyone plays (that's good) but the painstaking process of analysis, assigning points for skills and creating house league teams of equal skill went out the window. No draft, no thought. Just a divvying up of names based on where they played before and clusters of friends who wanted to hang out together for the winter, including a team of guys born in 1992 who wanted to be their own team.
It's taken as seriously as spring 3-on-3 leagues, which means it's only exercise.
Oddly, the many part-timers got clustered on my son's team meaning the coach is constantly asking for players from two other neighbourhood teams to volunteer to play and fill out the minimum roster and avoid defaulting. That's actually kind of good - the influx of talent makes the games competitive, but still not winnable.
Unfortunately, the schedule was written with conflicting or back-to-back games which means asking a lot of kids to play for their team, then help another.
Life's further complicated by two kids, the coach's son and the single goaltender, can't now play because they're hurt.
Juvenile hockey has only recently returned to London and I'm not sure what the best way to organize it is. Obviously people on winning teams where the kids who paid their fees are actually showing up like the current setup.
Part of me wished the team would be collapsed and the kids who really can make the time commitment to play distributed to the other teams. But that would mean less ice time in already quick 50-minute curfewed games.
Maybe we should just turn off the scoreboard and let them scrimmage.
Our kids have played on losing soccer teams before, but this is the first time in 11 seasons of minor hockey I've had a son who's playing on a team that can't win. Not just a losing record here. We're talking about a team that cannot expect to win a game, period.
It's a bit of a change from one year when he was on a team that went undefeated through the regular season or won an Ontario championship (of which there are many at several different levels and in many geographical areas). Nor is it like the Ontario "A" teams he was on which hit above their weight in a league of "AA" teams.
This is juvenile hockey where everyone plays (that's good) but the painstaking process of analysis, assigning points for skills and creating house league teams of equal skill went out the window. No draft, no thought. Just a divvying up of names based on where they played before and clusters of friends who wanted to hang out together for the winter, including a team of guys born in 1992 who wanted to be their own team.
It's taken as seriously as spring 3-on-3 leagues, which means it's only exercise.
Oddly, the many part-timers got clustered on my son's team meaning the coach is constantly asking for players from two other neighbourhood teams to volunteer to play and fill out the minimum roster and avoid defaulting. That's actually kind of good - the influx of talent makes the games competitive, but still not winnable.
Unfortunately, the schedule was written with conflicting or back-to-back games which means asking a lot of kids to play for their team, then help another.
Life's further complicated by two kids, the coach's son and the single goaltender, can't now play because they're hurt.
Juvenile hockey has only recently returned to London and I'm not sure what the best way to organize it is. Obviously people on winning teams where the kids who paid their fees are actually showing up like the current setup.
Part of me wished the team would be collapsed and the kids who really can make the time commitment to play distributed to the other teams. But that would mean less ice time in already quick 50-minute curfewed games.
Maybe we should just turn off the scoreboard and let them scrimmage.
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