Hockey is my passion, so naturally when I was asked this year to be the head coach of an age 7-8 boys hockey team, I jumped on the chance. Not realising that coaching was a far harder task then just playing or watching, I started scouting out my team. When choosing my team I decided to pick players that stood out to me from the last year when I was the co-coach of our first place team. Starting the season I knew that I had the best possible players according to my memory of last year. What I didn't anticipate was that there were many new faces as well as many players that had gotten much better over the spring and summer. So as we approached our first game of the season I was pumped, I knew the dynamics of my team and I knew that we were going to go far this season. As the boys step out onto the ice, cheers came from the stands, it was the parents- they were our number one fans of course. I played all the boys on my team an equal amount of time, knowing that the ice time would be good for them all.
After three very exhausting periods our team had lost a terrible loss of 4-0. I didn't understand, I was certain that my team was the best. The boys were crushed, they hated loosing just as much as I did and had their self-esteem knocked down very low. Walking out of the arena I could see the anger and disappointment of my players. I decided that the only viable option was to work with my team and really practise with them hard to bring back the talent that I knew they had and to try and boost their self-esteem. After weeks of working with my team and trying to get them to work together, some players started to stand out more than others. Two forwards with the talent of breaking away with the puck and maintaining good puck control and a few strong defencive players that had the spirit and the strength to steal the puck from any oncoming player. So to me it became obvious what I had to do to win. I had to play my good players more often.
Our next game approached and I could feel my anticipation growing, this was our chance to win. With my plan all in order, I sent out the first line with all the players that were passionate about hockey but not necessarily good at it. They were able to defend the other team off for the first three minutes, in which I then changed lines and put out my stronger team. As the five strong players on my team scored 2-3 goals and stayed on the ice for three minutes longer than the first line, the starting line got more excited because we were winning and started to get more excited about playing. Then when my star players needed a rest I sent out the first line again, now very excited about hockey and winning. They would be able to play and defend the players off enough so that we were still winning and then I would play my good line again. This pattern continued for the rest of the game and we ended up winning. The players on my team were so excited and we all celebrated our first win.
This technique continued for the next couple of games and we won every one of them but as the excitement died down from winning the players on the team that were playing less often started to become upset that they weren't treated the same as the other players and eventually the parents started to become upset. I decided that the right thing to do was to just play both lines for the same amount of time and hope that the players weren't too sad about losing. So the next game I played the weaker line first and I let them stay out for five minutes and then switched lines. We ended up losing the game by a lot but at least my players were happy and the parents weren't upset anymore. Or so I thought. I now faced another problem, the children started to become upset and down about losing and the parents started to complain again. I was in a position that no matter what I did I couldn't please everyone.
We went our full season playing every player for the same amount of time and still losing. I felt so down that I actually started to dislike coaching. I told myself that I wasn't going to coach next year because I was so upset about this no win scenario. After losing plenty of games and seeing the disappointment growing in the boys, I started to think of ways that I could make this better. I finally got the answer. I needed to combine different strengths and weaknesses to create even lines that could play well together. Going into our playoffs I played these lines together and was shocked by the results. We had won 3-4 games that we played landing us a spot in the championship game. Our team fought hard and worked together to play a hard game but unfortunately we lost. It didn't matter though because we all managed to work together and pull off an amazing game and finish off an amazing year gaining new friendships and a shinny second place trophy.
Figuring out a solution to my no win situation made me feel like I accomplished something, and brought my spirits back up. I am now starting to think of fun and exciting drills for my team next year and I'm excited to see what players a new season brings on. Having the answer to my problem made me believe in myself and my coaching again and ultimately brought my team to that championship game. I'm proud of my boys and all that they have accomplished. Go Knights Go!
