Barrister's obnoxious thread full of smug parenting stories

[crazy canuck]

This would have been Js first Olympics if he had kept up with rowing and everything worked out.  That last bit is of course a big if.  One person from his rowing days made it onto the team.  Everyone else he knew before he dropped it have been injured at various times and forced out.  The one who made it has basically had to put life on hold while she trained.  I am a bit conflicted about the olympics.  On the one hand it gives athletes in the non commercial sports something to aim for.  But on the other hand the IOC makes a lot of money off their effort with very little comparative return to the athletes.  I think J has some regrets that he dropped it to get on with life.  But when he thinks about what he would have had to sacrifice along the way, he figures he made the better choice.

[Admiral Yi]

Penhold, Alberta (just south of Red Deer)

Ah, that Penhold.

[Barrister]

Penhold, Alberta (just south of Red Deer)

Ah, that Penhold.

I'm pretty sure nobody on this forum would know where Penhold is (I mean hell I had to look it up on a map), but Canadians at least probably know Red Deer (city of 100k or so almost exactly mid-way between Edmonton and Calgary).

[Barrister]

Another post about minor hockey!  Because as soon as the calendar hits September that means hockey is back up and running.  And with that comes the nervousness of evaluations.

So Josh is in his second year of U9.  Last year he was in the very bottom tier - which was the tier he belonged in to be perfectly fair.  I'm kind of hoping he isn't in the very bottom this year, because while the top tiers can sometimes have rather over-committed parents, the bottom tier can be somewhat under-committed - getting enough players to just show up was sometimes an issue.  Josh put in some very respectable times though.  It definitely helped that we went out on the ice two days earlier with some other families specifically to practice the drills..  I was out on the ice volunteering  with the U9s and a lot of those kids had trouble understanding just what the drills were asking them to do.

Also I was out on the ice in the morning.  Part way through our shift the electronics we were using to just scan the kids in to get their times started failing, so we had to start entering the kids by hand.  When I cam back with Andrew in the mid-afternoon they were up to 2 hours behind schedule.  Andrew is going into first year U11, which will be his first year of playing full ice hockey.  He's excited for that.  Apparently he had pretty good skate times.  I don't think it's out of the question he could make Tier 2.

And then Tim is in first year U13 (formerly Peewee).  This is where things start to get serious, and Tim is trying out for the highest level (AA).  He's had two scrimmages so far, with a third one tonight before the first round of cuts.  He plays a "stay at home" defenceman kind of game that isn't flashy, but I have no idea to what extent that kind of skill set is valued or not at this level.  To my eye when he's out there he isn't wowing anyone, but he also isn't embarrassing himself either.  He's right in the middle.  But for a first year player that alone is pretty good I think.

So we'll see what happens.  We should find Andrew and Josh's teams this week.  And the makeup of a team has a huge influence on how good a hockey year the kids are going to have - having a good coach and some kids that you already know is really important.  And we should find out by Wednesday whether Tim makes it past the first round of cuts or not - if he's cut he then has to go through the same evaluation drills his brothers did.

[Barrister]

We got Andrew and Josh's skate times last night.  Josh actually did pretty well, I'm proud of him.

Andrew... not so much.  I think the 2+ hour waiting got to him a bit and he lost his focus.

So there's 4 different categories you can sign the kids up for.  The lowest is Recreational, where the kids have no practices, just one game per week (and no evaluations I believe).  I feel like you've gotta have practices though.  So the next lowest is Community, where it's one game and one practice per week.  This is where we signed up Josh for.  But his times are pretty good I feel like we could have made the next level, Development, where they throw in some extra practices.  But one game / one practice is probably as much as Josh will want to play.

We signed Andrew up for Competitive (which has even more practices), but with his times he might not make it and might be moved down to Development.  He'll be disappointed if a bunch of his friends get placed on a different (and higher ranked) team.

We'll also find out about the first round of AA cuts for Tim tonight.  I really don't think he'll make the team, but maybe he'll make it past these cuts.

Edit: Tim survived the first round of cuts. 

[Grey Fox]

Draft of 2028, go!

[Barrister]

Draft of 2028, go!

If anything (and probably not), it's more like WHL Bantam Draft of 2025, go!

Holy crap though, we didn't think Tim would make it (and he still hasn't) but we'd never looked at the fees for AA hockey.  It's $3000 plus $300 per month cash calls.  That's... a lot of money, and would require some serious belt-tightening.  It's also about 5x per week.

We figured it out though: there's 24 defencemen left, and they're going to wind up taking 18.  Just numerically that gives him a 75% chance of making it.  Realistically it's less than that though as there are a couple kids who already played AA last year who'd have a leg up.  Plus no idea how much 'politics' plays into this.  Tim doesn't know any of these coaches, and they don't know Tim (or me and Tracy, for that matter).

[Grey Fox]

What's a cash call?

Yeah, that's serious money. There's no way I could afford that.

[Barrister]

What's a cash call?

Yeah, that's serious money. There's no way I could afford that.

Just what it sounds like - the team manager calls up every parent (or actually sends an email) that say s "We need X money from each parent".  It doesn't go through the club, but rather through each individual team.  It goes to things like extra ice times, team swag, tournament fees.

I feel like it's kind of controversial although I've seen it on most teams starting at U9.  There's no real parent vote on how much to spend, we kind of just get told.  We did push back last year on Tim's team when they wanted something like $800 - we said "not until you tell us what it's going to be spent on".

I've always wondered what would happen if a parent refused to pay, or couldn't afford to pay.  There's no legal requirement to pay those cash calls.

My post two above talked about teams being split up into Community / Development / Competitive was actually done to deal with the issue of cash calls.  It used to be that all teams had the same initial fees, but then typically the higher teams would have higher cash calls in order to get more ice time.  Now you can sign up for the level you feel comfortable with (the more you pay, the more ice time your kid gets), and a cash call is maxed at $100.

[Barrister]

Just to be clear, none of these last few posts have been smug.  They probably are obnoxious though as probably nobody cares.

The worst part of being in all these competitive tryouts has been the social side of things.  For one example Tracy made friends with one of the mom's from Tim's spring team.  That kid was also trying out for AA - but was cut, so now Tracy feels awkward talking with the mom.

But the worst part - there's two other kids.  They both go to Tim's school, they both play hockey.  The 3 boys have gone and played at each other's houses, and our 3 families hang out together sometimes.  For the first time all 3 boys were on the same team last winter.  And yup - all 3 boys are trying out for AA, and all 3 boys made it past the first round of cuts.

But there are going to be some hurt feelings if some of the boys make it, while 1 or 2 don't.  And by hurt feelings I think the boys will get over it before the moms will.  These moms (and I include my wife) can be pretty competitive in their own ways...

[Jacob]

Yeah those aren't dynamics I'd particularly enjoy.

[Barrister]

All three of the kids were cut.  They called and spoke with Tim directly, who said he was one of the last ones cut so be sure to try again next year, and if anything to work on his skating.

Josh made a Tier 2 team - yikes!  That might be too competitive for him honestly.

Andrew made a Tier 4 team.  I think it'll be a good team for him.  He already knows 3 other kids.


The other kids we are friends with were also both cut, so we avoided any drama there.

[Barrister]

So Tim didn't make the AA team.  He didn't even make the Tier 1 team.

But he made the Tier 2 team - with his favourite coach and looks to be a bunch of his buddies.  Which, although he wanted to make AA, was what he said he wanted from the outset.  Should be fun times for him this year.

[Grey Fox]

Quite the good turn of events in the end.

[Barrister]

All three of the kids were cut.  They called and spoke with Tim directly, who said he was one of the last ones cut so be sure to try again next year, and if anything to work on his skating.

Josh made a Tier 2 team - yikes!  That might be too competitive for him honestly.

Andrew made a Tier 4 team.  I think it'll be a good team for him.  He already knows 3 other kids.

We're at the end of the hockey year.  I was going to post something else here (next post) but I saw this and had to follow up.

Josh's team was too competitive for him.  He felt like he couldn't do anything and basically stopped even trying half way through the year.  He now wants nothing to do with hockey. 

Andrew's team was really good for him.  It was his first year playing full ice.  He really embraced playing on defence and protecting the blue line.