My husband has died and gone to heaven...........hockey heaven. He is spending the weekend in Houston at a coaching clinic, getting certified at "Level 4." At the ice-and-puck smorgasborg of information, there are NHL and college coaches giving seminars and motivational speeches to a conference room full of rabid hockey guys. They will no doubt come away all fired up for a new season, ready to motivate their boys on the rink. The testosterone levels will be off the charts!
I really appreciate how seriously my man takes his coaching "job." He loves the sport, having grown up in Minnesota, the next best thing to Canada. He has always coached G.T.'s team (now PeeWee's), and made it his personal goal to help the boys learn the game, play as a team, and do their best. Winning is secondary. Not surprisingly, he has managed to take rag-tag groups of runny-nosed kids into winning seasons every time. Parents start calling mid-summer to get their kids on his team each fall, mostly because their kids like "Coach Tom," and the parents like how he treats their kids.
Hockey is such a competitive sport, it can make even the meekest mom in the stands thirsty for blood. Tom tells me that he has to constantly fight his own competitive streak, (the Dark Side, which is only visible when he rips his hat off his head in the heat of battle) for the higher goals of teaching, encouraging, and instilling positive values. It can't be easy, especially when your opponents are often better equipped, have three full lines of talented players, and the other coaches and parents wear custom leather jackets emblazoned with their team logos. It makes you want to beat the snot out of them at all costs, yet I see him over at the bench, bending over those young players giving calm direction in the face of such intense competition. Those kids are in good hands and they are lucky.
Yep, hockey is Tom's passion. Loves to coach it, loves to play it, loves to learn about it. A weekend full of it will keep him flying high for a long, long time.
The count-down has begun for the first puck-drop of the season!
Rachel Anne
