i enjoy sitting in the penalty box. it’s easy volunteer work – you just open the door when a player gets a penalty to let them in the box and let them out when the time is up.

hearing the coaches interact with the players offers a unique perspective on the game. i can’t imagine coaching a bunch of nine and ten year olds. they’re old enough to take direction and understand their individual positions in the game, but they are still young and early in internalizing the lesson that they can only win by playing as a team.

in this game they kept falling back to playing as a set of individuals, swatting the puck around while the other team ran circles around them playing as a coordinated unit. according the scoreboard, the game was close, but looking at the style of play it was clear odin’s team was probably going to lose when they got tired.

they came off the ice after the first period and the coach asked, “so, how do you think that went.”

their simultaneous response, “baaaaaaaaad!”

the state championships are coming up this weekend. hopefully they can learn from the loss.