MThockeydad

Started our girls preseason clinic last night. LOVE the enthusiasm and energy of all the 8-12 year-olds.

Haha. my under gear gets washed every 3-4 uses if it gets dried right away after wearing. Protective gear every 1.5-2 months. i know people who never wash either. THAT is gross!!

Awesome! Our Summer Games tourney is this upcoming weekend. nothing like leaving your gear in the locker room to make you feel AlmostLikeAPro. Hopefully we can do the same. May take my motorhome to the rink for the mobile fridge/bed/tunes!

My girls really stepped up their hog showmanship yesterday at our county fair. Oldest daughter has shown 4-H pigs for 5 years, but this year she decided to enter some jackpot shows. She was consistently beaten by a couple of kids from other counties (one was her hog breeder) and had a challenging week at the State Fair two weeks ago. She stepped into the ring yesterday and showed her A game and took Reserve Grand Champion Senior Showmanship in her first year in the senior class. She then took 5th place market hog out of 200 entries--she picked out the weanling pig back in March and bought it herself at auction. She worked her ass off all summer to train her pig and her efforts really paid off. Little sis was in her 3rd year, and watched big sis intently while she showed. She stepped into the ring and upped her game about 1,000% but hadn't worked her hog as hard this summer. While she was ready to show at the top level, her piggy was not! She got called back for the final junior showmanship class, but her pig didn't want to have anything to do with it and between laying down, rolling over, biting her, and trying to get into 3 fights (which the kid stopped without outside help) finally stepped on her foot and rolled onto her leg, pinning her on the ground. She bravely kept showing and took 3rd place in Junior...and the tears flowed freely once she got back to her stall. She's going to be very prepared next season. I love the life lessons they're learning--radically different from hockey--but a fresh challenge in the off-season.

She's getting tall!! my 03 just passed up her mama

Awesome. No doubt your support has helped him a ton. Chiefs wife etiquette?! Try not to swear like an adult hockey player!!

I really can't wait! Same reason I LOVE playing pond hockey with my girls. My oldest daughter ('03) played in the local spring women's league and had her first taste of adult hockey. She really enjoyed the no-drama just show up and play attitude. They were going to put her at wing, but after scoring her team's first goal of the season from D, had her teammates support and respect for the rest of the games. The locker room before/after is less likely for us.

I scored more goals last night (2) in our summer league game than I did in all of my spring B league (1). Our team won 3-2 and the case of beer! Time for another 10-month slump. haha

Played in an end of season tourney the 2nd weekend in may, ice went back in at our local indoor rink on Sunday. I hadn't played for a mere 5+ weeks, but dayum, it felt good to be back. Lungs were burning, heart is happy. I need to do some interval workouts. Our game was "live" on facebook. Not a particularly exciting game to watch, but the commentary was humorous, especially if you know the personalites on and off the ice. https://www.facebook.com/groups/353268981496173/657430754413326/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_livestream_activity&notif_id=1467249884831313 I'm #11 white (super tall guy, white helmet, white/blue/yellow socks). I've never seen myself on video before....I'm nothing special, but I honestly think I look better than I thought I would haha.

Roadtripped with my wifey to SLC and I performed a buddy's wedding. We travel all the time with our girls for hockey, it's nice to be husband and wife some times. I really like visiting Utah, nice people, great scenery. I don't ever want to leave MT, but our neighbors are nice!

Life is good, sfdz6_20_07

Not that I like that you have to use it, but I like that it helps your mobility. :)

Younger daughter went from the MT Player Development Camp to the Northern Plains District Player Development Camp in Grand Forks, ND last weekend, and just got the invite today to attend the Multi-District Player Development Camp in July at Kent State in Ohio. I'm scared. To me she's still just a little kid with a huge heart and a messy room. (Pic from the ND camp - she's in the #14 blue jersey with the red helmet---my tall ugly ass is on the far right)

Took my daughters to a Lyndsey Fry camp in Seattle this weekend. She's a pretty incredible coach at such a young age. Younger daughter got asked to come back for tryouts for their club's AA team to go to the Beantown tourney in July. Awesome for her. But I'm seriously not ready for this!

Oldest kid got a concussion two weekends ago playing volleyball...sucks that she got a concussion, but sorta cool that she was going so hard in volleyball of all things. My wifey called me from the tournament in a panic that she was taking the kid to the ER to get her checked out. Hockey coach brain kicked in and I calmly told her, "Keep calm, take her to your mom's, put her in your room, turn off the lights, take away her phone, make sure it's quiet, get her plenty of liquids and let her rest." I sent my better half with her to the neuro specialist the next week and he asked what we did to care for her post-injury. "Kept her calm, took her home, put her in a dark, quiet room, fed her liquids, and let her rest." "Yep," he said. Concussions are scary, but it feels good to not just feel helpless/powerless or conversely tell her, "rub dirt on it and get back out there, ya just got yer bell rung". She went back to school today. We're off to Seattle this weekend for the Lyndsey Fry camp. Lyndsey was cool about giving us a partial refund and will still let the older daughter attend the dryland talks. :) Younger daughter got the invite to attend the Northern Plains District Development Camp in Grand Forks next weekend. :D

Impressive!!!!!!

I'm humbled. Got recognized by the Montana association:

14U Montana state girls hockey tournament. What an incredible weekend capping off an awesome season. The past several years we've had 3 teams only playing a state tourney. Our team and a nearby town joined forces to win the championship last season. The teams had relatively few games to play during the year. This season, we had four more associations join our new 14U league, and along with two from the prior season, we had 6 teams and a ton of league games. The girls played their hearts out all season and we had some very very fast, intense, physical yet clean games. A lot of people at the rinks watched the girls games and commented that they had no idea that girls hockey could be so intense. The games were often close and there were fewer than two penalties most games and zero penalties most games. This is the way hockey should be played. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve these kids. Montana hockey has hard-working young girls with great sportsmanship. Managers who bend over backwards to work together and put together great game weekends for our players. The girls are well coached and have parents who are supportive and respectful. There are a lot of boys and their parents who could learn a thing or two from them. Missoula topped Flathead 3-1 yesterday for the championship. The two teams had a great rivalry all season--between league and tournament games, Missoula won 4, Flathead won 2, and they tied 1. Congratulations to the Missoula Lady Bruins for a hard-fought title. Edited to add pics: I LOVED having both my girls play together. After my '03s finishes her time with the boys at Peewee state in two weeks, and they will move up to 19U together next season.

Well, doc cleared her starting Saturday and said she could sit on the bench last night for practice and at this afternoon's game. She came to practice and sat on the bench last night. She wasn't 100%. :( EJW, I would buy that girls may be more susceptible to concussions due to neck strength. Its that rapid deceleration/rotation of the brain inside the skull when it strikes the boards, the ice, or the hard ground. If the player can keep their head from striking the surface (i.e. a male with a stronger neck), its a comparatively gentler deceleration. Maybe resulting in a sore neck, but no brain slosh.

That's exactly what we're doing--let the kid's doctor decide. If I have to decide, the answer is "no". My own daughters had relatively concussions last year and two years ago. They each took 3+ weeks to heal. After learning the other young lady was out for the season, I tried to be very proactive with our girls--emphasized keeping their heads off the ice and out of the boards and respecting their opponents. I sent an email out to all the other managers to have a talk with their girls as well. I'm happy to report that nothing bad has happened in our 14U league games--fewer than 2 penalties per game and zero majors. They're playing hard, but playing clean. Thank you, Mark. That fact sheet is very helpful. The blue sidebars about athletes not reporting concussions or trying to hide symptoms are spot-on. This kid is the top scorer in the 14U league in our state in her last year of playing 14's. I know she's wanting to make a big showing. I don't care. I don't want her drooling in a cup for the rest of her life. I'll defer to the doc, but its just scary to me to even contemplate. Thank you all.

Another girl on the team got a concussion playing with the 19U girls last weekend. She thinks its "minor" and is begging us to come play at 14U state this weekend. No fucking way. The first girl is still out, and missed a ton of school, life, and hockey this season. No way do I want to know that this happened to another kid. She's going to be pissed at us for not letting her play, but in the great grand scheme of things, she will be far better off to heal a couple of weeks and get back into life. A second concussion right now just has too many horrible risks. It sucks that I get to be the messenger, but at least the message is out there for me to communicate. A lot of players lives have been irreparably damaged first because nobody knew the risks of multiple concussions, and next because nobody did anything about it. Now that we're doing something about it, feelers are hurt, but I can live with that. Please remind me I'm doing the right thing, my friends. :)

She was at our rink when we were away on vacation between Christmas and New Year's. The reports I heard from girls and parents were overwhelmingly excellent. They said she not only pushed and inspired the girls on the ice, but she also gave them some incredible advice and guidance about hockey and life while at the off-ice session. I hope to get my girls to one of her camps/clinics in the near future. Kudos to her. Glad your LO got to hang with her.

Great 14U girls games this weekend. Awesome competition, with no games won or lost by more than two points. One new team to the league is comprised of all female Squirt/Peewee/Bantam players, and this was the first weekend all their girls were at home and available to play. Our girls went 2-1-1, with an 0-1 loss and a 1-1 win with the above team. Their goalie was incredible. She was stopping a lot of shots taken on quick passes and the only one that went in was a shot from point where my daughter was screening her and had a tiny deflection into the net. They had 2-1 and 4-2 wins over the other team at the festival. I finally got to see my '03 on the ice for the first time since November as her Peewee schedule has conflicted with our 14U schedule. She's gotten strong. Really smart D player. Its fun to watch her skate and play. I take no credit for her skills, but I feed her a lot. My '01 continues to improve after missing last season. We put her back at D in December and she HATED it. Now she LOVES it. Great backchecking speed and confidence, and she's the team's unofficial "big sister". After losing a teammate for the season due to her concussion, I was more happy than anything to see my girls take some hard falls and keep their heads off the ice. And even more exciting, we got a dog last night. My wife and I have had Labs for 19 continuous years and lost our oldest and last dog at almost age 16 in April. We made it 8 months dogless and the girls begged us for a pup. We rescued a gorgeous, sweet 8.5 year-old Lab mix.

I'm stoked to have moved up and start my first session of B division hockey last night. (Our adult association has A, B+, B, and C...so I'm still a LOOONNNGG way from A) I will NEVER make the NHL--or probably A for that matter--but this is a great challenge. :)

I managed a successful 14U girls jamboree this weekend. We had six teams, and everyone had a blast. Zero parent, player, ref, or coach issues. Our 14U girls team beat their rivals Missoula in pool play. First time this season after 5 other pairings--resulting in 4 close losses and one tie. Missoula won the big trophy. Awesome fast, fun, intense game. 3 of our visiting teams are very new; they got to play each other and had a lot of fun. It was a great time, but also a relief to now have it completed. Went out for beers with my fellow managers on Saturday night and round-tabled ideas to keep building girls hockey in Montana.