Music City Cup not ours

If the object of out-of-town tournaments is fun, my son's midget team is a big winner. If it's to actually capture the trophy, well, not so much this time.

West London Hawks midgets pose with manager Larry Heald
at Famous Dave's in Franklin, TN. This barbecue restaurant
 was No. 1 for teens and parents.

We drove 11 hours to play in a four-team tournament in Franklin, TN, just outside of Nashville on the weekend and along the way enjoyed being tourists in Nashville, shopping in Franklin and Ohio, a little bit of poker and social drinking, the amazing Famous Dave's BBQ  (everyone should eat here) and a couple of excellent Cracker Barrels.
And we played four excellent hockey games against teens from Florida, Texas and Alabama. We won the consolation game and, if I may be so bold, would've won the championship if we didn't have three kids out with injuries, the latest being the son of our manager who damaged his knee early in the first game of the tournament.
No hockey tournament is complete without drama and it seems every time we cross the border for a tournament in the United States, something odd happens.
This time, it was during the final round robin game against South Florida, a team which started the season on a sad note when its coach was killed in a car accident. Players are wearing patches honouring him.
Of course the same players who have the class to honour their coach don't necessarily play the game with honour. Profanities directed to our bench, cut throat gestures and strange comments (the most polite was "Why don't you go home?") were part of the Florida approach.
The strangest thing was when a Florida player skated into a stream of water being spit out by one of our players. The player thought he was the target of a spitball and went to complain to the referee. Neither the referee nor the two linesmen saw a spitball, but believed the Florida kid and tossed our player out of the game. That was followed minutes later by tossing one of our trainers, who happens to be the father of the tossed player, out as well.
We lost the game and maybe respect for all things Florida.
That's the thing about travelling far afield to sports tournaments. You're doing more than playing a game. You're representing your city and country in the eyes of other teams and onlookers. How you act plays a role in the image people form about your home.
We hope we left people in Franklin and Nashville with a positive image of London and Canada. We came away loving Tennessee. Florida? Not so much.
Oh, and congratulations to Houston, winners of the Music City Cup. They beat Florida.

11 hours later

Eleven hours on a bus with a bunch of teenagers isn't all that bad, once you block out the teenagers' choices of DVDs and realize they don't want to watch The Waltons nor listen to country music.
We're on the road in Franklin, TN., and ready to spend a day as tourists (or shoppers) before the tournament begins.
I think we're all missing Tim Hortons, but take comfort in the haul from the duty free.
Here's hoping the hockey competition is good and we win every game by a nailbiting goal or two.

Happy New Year!

American blogger JBM Thinks is a sports mom, coach's wife with interesting insights. Hockey parents can just substitute the word "rink" for field or court in her new Top 10 list of New Year's resolutions you can find here.
My resolution? To help get a chartered bus full of Canadian teenage hockey players to Nashville and back, well fed, homework done and in good weather driving. And with a championship trophy. Not that I'm overly competitive, just that we do intend to win.