“Nothing worthwhile or long-lasting can be achieved without hard work. Former basketball great Bill Bradley once said his father would tell him, ‘Son, when you’re not out practicing, someone else is. And when you meet that person, he’s going to beat you.’” - Gary Franks from Searching for the Promised Land: An African American’s Optimistic Odyssey published by Harper Collins, and featured in the Points to Ponder column of the November 2002 Reader’s Digest
I never told my son that story. The truth is, I never had to. My son is a true athlete through and through. He’s always practicing, always trying to better himself at whatever sport he tries his hand at. He’s played hockey all his young life. Right from the first time he wanted to play road hockey he knew his place was in goal. He had a natural ability. When I bought him his first road hockey net and gear, it was like he was born to be the goalie. He had the moves down perfectly.
He was a late bloomer in learning to skate. A very good friend of mine was coach of a house league hockey team for my son’s age level. He knew my son’s passion for the game and asked me if he wanted to play ice hockey for real. I told him he’d never been on skates before. (I never learned to skate. We had a natural ice rink that formed every year on the property where I grew up. My father, an avid hockey player and ice skater, presented me with a pair of skates one Christmas. Every time I set out, my feet flew up in the air in front of me and I ended up flat on my back. After a few winters of bruises, I gave up on the idea of ever learning how to skate.)
My friend said that he could teach my son how to skate. I’ll never forget that night. He laced up a pair of skates loaned to him by the coach. It was an old pair that one of his son’s had grown out of. He stepped carefully out on the ice and took off like he’d been skating forever. The coach took off after him and told him he was doing well. Then he asked my son the most important question: “Do you know how to stop?” My son said, “No!” The boards at the far end of the rink were approaching rapidly. My friend explained the trick of stopping on skates. My son tried it - thankfully just in time. My son had a wonderful time skating for the rest of the time they were on the ice. Now, my son had roller blades and had no problems with balance. I’m sure that helped when he finally tried on a pair of ice skates.
My friend made him the team’s goalie right from the start of the season. He got a shut-out the first game he ever played. I helped out on the bench for that game, and it is a moment I will never forget.
He played house league hockey for a few years and then we made the transition to the Rep system. The first year he played ‘AE’. The second year, he jumped two levels to ‘AA’. Last year, during this past ‘AA’ season, he and the team’s other goalie helped the team to go on a 16-game winning streak. By the end of the regular season, they both had the best goals-against average in their league. This yeas, he’s back to playing ‘AE’, again through no fault of his own. Any hockey parent who has ever played in the Rep system will have an idea about what happened. He’s kept his skill-level up all summer playing ‘3-on-3′ hockey. Again, back to what I alluded to at the beginning of this blog, his work ethic is such that he wants to be the very best that he can be because he has big dreams for his future. His own ‘field of dreams’ is an ice-pad and a net at one end.
It all began with a road hockey net and pads bought on his 6th birthday that now seems so long ago in the past. I’ve since upgraded the net, but his 5th pair of road hockey pads are frayed and falling apart. It might be time for another set.
My son just celebrated a milestone birthday this weekend. These thoughts about his early hockey career ran through my mind as we celebrated his 13 years, with ice cream cake.
Happy birthday, son. We’re all so very proud of your accomplishments, on and off the ice.
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your Dad….
Thank you for the joy your program gives me every night.Love hearing about your family and I send you good wishes for a long life,mine has lasted nearly 85 years I am blessed, M. Brownhill
- Millie Brownhill