New Year New Hockey You

It is becoming more and more cliché to make a New Year’s resolution. Today’s society is struggling to keep their dinner plans let alone a life altering decision. That doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t set goals for themselves in a new calendar year. These changes don’t have to be drastic either, in fact, they should be subtle to the outside world. These are your personal goals, not the world’s goals for you.

For parents, the continuity of preaching better behavior needs to continue. Each passing day finds a new story of a hockey or parent in youth athletics taking the fun and purity out of the game with some embarrassing news story. Whether it’s interactions with other parents, towards coaches, and most often towards youth officials, the black eye being created is starting to appear more like a tattoo rather than a bruise. Bruises heal and go away, tattoos do not.

For coaches, maybe your resolution doesn’t revolve around one’s own interior betterment, but the betterment of the team, or an approach towards a topic. If there has been a player or team habit you can’t seem to help break, maybe doing some research or talking with peers to take a different approach in dealing with these predicaments can help overcome them. The old saying goes, “Never stop learning,” but the onus is on you to seek the information.

For players, this time of the year should be about embracing the ride. Each team and player have different goals going into the season, and now that a new calendar has been hung, we all know that the impending end of season tournament is quickly approaching. Many teams are gearing up for the wildly popular MLK weekend youth hockey tournament in Michigan. Team and player identities have been formed, and now is the time to prepare to execute. No matter what role you have been put in, embrace and excel in that role.

Together we can all work towards making the game a better and more inclusive place, be it for new players, coaches, officials, or parents. Everyone can learn and become better, and we can all help each other do so. Hockey is more fun that way.

For fun after the playoff season is over, check out our Facebook page for our upcoming Spring hockey tournaments, including our wildly popular and almost always sold-out Hockey Fights Cancer in May.