Hockey Hockey Hockey!!! South Tahoe Hockey Invitational Tournament

Four days, 40 games, 56.5 hours on the ice… THAT’S a weekend!  Straight to the “shots”… 🙂  (you can find the rest of the images at the link under current events or under Leagues & Events)

Here’s a little gallery first… click to make them bigger.

And I want to make mention of four particular people at the tournament… the first is a young fella… he plays AND he refs… here he is in action… in both uniforms!  Well done Travis!!

And the other three fellas… are coaches.

A very special three fellas in my book.  They coached three of the four Oakland Bears teams… yes, the three coaches coached three teams!  They were not only a blast to be around… but if my kids were to ever play hockey, I would want these three guys to be their coaches.  I see a lot of games (a lot of different sports…), I see a lot of coaches… these three are a special class act, and I told them so.  AMAZING with the kids… as a parent, I’m still analyzing how they interacted with the kids, very positive, very supportive… they didn’t baby the players, they came down on them hard when they needed, but they followed it with “… I know you’re better than that, now get back out there and show me what I know you are capable of…”.  After I see and hear this on the bench and then watch the kids respond on the ice… it puts my faith back into sports, that it’s not all about the prima donna pretty boys and the selfishness we see in some people…. It’s for reasons like this that I have the best job, to spend my days with people like this!  I hope our paths cross again fellas, I very much enjoyed being out there with you guys coaching!  And because I know you don’t hear it often… thank you for what you do, I think you’re doing an amazing job.  I know these young folks you’re working with will also someday look back and know they were involved with some special coaches… and hopefully they’ll pass it on!  Kudos to you fellas!!