Bitch #3... the hockey coach

Emma's team played a game today against Brainerd. As I have mentioned, our girls are... not great. But holy cow, they are improving. They've been working on their offense, I can tell.

So the one coach for Brainerd... what a piece of work, he missed his calling as a Drill Sergeant. Between the 2nd and 3rd period, there is an intermission, the teams go to their locker rooms with their coaches, and the Zamboni comes out and cleans the ice. I don't know much about ice, but from what I can gather, that clean ice is very fast, and slick. After Mr. Zamboni does his job, the teams can come back out on the ice. The Brainerd girls come out first, and they make a lap around the rink, then, once they get to the straight away on the backside, the lead 3 girls go hell bent for election and about the blue line, they do a face first slide. I could hear them laughing from waaaay up in the stands. They were having FUN! Their coach sees this, and immediately screams out onto the ice from their bench "Knock it off! You should be doing sprints" He is just a jerk. I'm sorry, I think it's fine to expect your girls to play hard, and be "in the game" when they're IN THE GAME. But to yell at them when they're having fun.... they're KIDS, THAT'S WHAT THEY DO!

Later on, he was screaming at the Refs for not counting a goal they scored (goal #7, vs our 0). The reason the goal was not counted? Their player scored it by plowing the puck into the net on the face of one of our girls. Kayla did not get up. Our coaches were on their way out to attend to her and this jackass was still barking about how that goal should count. Kayla sat out a few minutes and ended up being OK, just had the wind knocked out of her, thank goodness.

I am just glad that the coaches here allow our kids to be kids. They are taught the fundamentals of the game, they are also taught to win and lose gracefully. I have no doubt in my mind that this Brainerd style of coaching is the reason for several of their girls checking our girls into the boards and (I heard from Emma, and a couple other girls) calling our girls 'bitches' as they knocked them down. That is not the kind of athlete I want to have, and thankfully, with the great coaches we have here, I think it's safe to say that MY daughter will be a better player in the end because of it.

Now that I have that out of my system, HOLY CRAP, what a busy day! I got up this morning and got right to work on my outline for my speech... rough draft done, just need to type it up and polish it a bit as I do. Then I took Emma to the arena, and almost an hour later, went myself and got there in time to see the beginning of the game (not usual for me) and hear them announce the STARTING LINEUP FOR THE LAKERS... at Right Wing, Emmalee G. I just like hearing her name announced, gives me goosebumps.

After the game, Miss Em and I went out to Mom & Dave's so Grandma could help Em with her Valentine's Box. It's a project they do every year, they have to create their own box, it must have a moving part, and a light-up feature! Emma wants to give out PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN cards to her classmates, so we decided to use that as a theme. Her Valentine's box is a treasure chest. AND IT IT AMAZING. We aren't done yet, but everything is in the works, and with some parental and grandparental guidance, she is doing great.

We get home from that little chore, and I see that Shitball is still here. He is Alex's friend, and we haven't seen much of him lately, he's a parent-driven wrestler. He currently has a black eye from wrestling practice... I asked him if he was spending the night. He said "I can if you want me to"
I don't WANT you to, but you can.

Kid eats like a bear. A starving bear. Good thing he's a nice kid with good manners.

Well, I should get to typing that outline up, one less thing to freak out about tomorrow.