I've posted before about my son and hockey. Last night, I'm at the rink getting ready to watch the Blackhawks pre-season game in the crappy little lobby on a plastic chair that makes my ass hurt for days after sitting in it, and two of the coaches sit down next to me in their full gear, skates on, helmets with half shields, didn't even take off their gloves or put down their sticks. Both were still sweating from the drills they just instructed, and I swear if smoking was allowed, both would have lit up a heater.
One is new to our team, Coach Stan, who is maybe 60-65. The other I've never seen before but older than the first. I chat them up for a bit, asking about hockey, etc. and find out the older guy, Coach Chez, played in an independent league for the Chicago Cardinals and then the Rockford team from 1970-77. Old timer said it was basically just like Slapshot--lots of fights, people getting their teeth knocked out, no helmets, lot of characters.
One team had a defenseman that he said he would not go into the corners on. Literally, every time the puck went in the corner against the guy, he just skated away because he said the guy was a madman--would cut you with his skates, cheap shot you in the balls, look to kill you every time. Coach Chez said in his first couple of seasons he saw two of his teammates get knocked out and had to be carried off the ice by the guy. But then after the game, all the players would head to the same bar and this guy would be the first one to buy a round for everyone. A real sweetheart off the ice.
After playing, this coach was a referee for various minor leagues for 20 years, then drove the Zamboni at the United Center for a decade, then "retired" to traveling around to various local ice rinks to serve as a house league coach or instructor. I mean, this guy's entire life has been hockey since age 19, it sounded like. He's not alone. There are plenty of these old timers out there, scraping by (they can't make very much money; I know at our rink he's coaching for free) just to get ice time with a team as a coach or whatever. I'm guessing they are all bouncing around up here in the north and must be around Canada, too. Every coach my son has ever had, for example, has been an older guy with no kid on the team and is volunteering. I don't think any other U.S. sport has such a fascinating sub-culture surrounding it.
Later that night, the other coach, Coach Stan (who was the goalie coach for the Chicago Wolves not too long ago), kicked my son's entire team "off the ice" and called the parents into the locker room. He pointed to us and said "you guys aren't taking this seriously enough. You need to stop goofing off, stop talking when we're talking, and pay attention. Your parents work hard to pay for you to play this sport, drive you here . . . " It went on and on and he gave really good reasons for why these kids should be grateful and take the coaches and their time there seriously (it's true; getting ice time is a bitch). He even used the "respect the game" line.
I loved that this guy was doing this, but I could see it was not landing on the kids it needed to. They are 13-14 years old and have no conception of gratitude, sacrifice, etc. I'm pretty sure few of us did either when we were that age. Anyway, as soon as the coaches left the locker room, the same kids that no doubt got the team kicked out of practice, started acting up, laughing and yelling.
Us old timers tend to forget what it was like to be a kid. Or maybe we current parents are nicer and indulge our kids more than the generation before us? Note, I don't think this is a socioeconomic disparity--most of the kids on this team have first-generation immigrant parents from Czech or Poland. This is a group of parents who are blue collar for the most part, but I think the "spoiling" of kids now ranges across socioeconomic classes whereas in the past it might have been disproportionately a practice of the upper classes.
One is new to our team, Coach Stan, who is maybe 60-65. The other I've never seen before but older than the first. I chat them up for a bit, asking about hockey, etc. and find out the older guy, Coach Chez, played in an independent league for the Chicago Cardinals and then the Rockford team from 1970-77. Old timer said it was basically just like Slapshot--lots of fights, people getting their teeth knocked out, no helmets, lot of characters.
One team had a defenseman that he said he would not go into the corners on. Literally, every time the puck went in the corner against the guy, he just skated away because he said the guy was a madman--would cut you with his skates, cheap shot you in the balls, look to kill you every time. Coach Chez said in his first couple of seasons he saw two of his teammates get knocked out and had to be carried off the ice by the guy. But then after the game, all the players would head to the same bar and this guy would be the first one to buy a round for everyone. A real sweetheart off the ice.
After playing, this coach was a referee for various minor leagues for 20 years, then drove the Zamboni at the United Center for a decade, then "retired" to traveling around to various local ice rinks to serve as a house league coach or instructor. I mean, this guy's entire life has been hockey since age 19, it sounded like. He's not alone. There are plenty of these old timers out there, scraping by (they can't make very much money; I know at our rink he's coaching for free) just to get ice time with a team as a coach or whatever. I'm guessing they are all bouncing around up here in the north and must be around Canada, too. Every coach my son has ever had, for example, has been an older guy with no kid on the team and is volunteering. I don't think any other U.S. sport has such a fascinating sub-culture surrounding it.
Later that night, the other coach, Coach Stan (who was the goalie coach for the Chicago Wolves not too long ago), kicked my son's entire team "off the ice" and called the parents into the locker room. He pointed to us and said "you guys aren't taking this seriously enough. You need to stop goofing off, stop talking when we're talking, and pay attention. Your parents work hard to pay for you to play this sport, drive you here . . . " It went on and on and he gave really good reasons for why these kids should be grateful and take the coaches and their time there seriously (it's true; getting ice time is a bitch). He even used the "respect the game" line.
I loved that this guy was doing this, but I could see it was not landing on the kids it needed to. They are 13-14 years old and have no conception of gratitude, sacrifice, etc. I'm pretty sure few of us did either when we were that age. Anyway, as soon as the coaches left the locker room, the same kids that no doubt got the team kicked out of practice, started acting up, laughing and yelling.
Us old timers tend to forget what it was like to be a kid. Or maybe we current parents are nicer and indulge our kids more than the generation before us? Note, I don't think this is a socioeconomic disparity--most of the kids on this team have first-generation immigrant parents from Czech or Poland. This is a group of parents who are blue collar for the most part, but I think the "spoiling" of kids now ranges across socioeconomic classes whereas in the past it might have been disproportionately a practice of the upper classes.
