we weren’t the only ones to notice odin’s improved skating skills. his hockey coach called and asked him to try out to move up to next level.

he’s in the mites which is the level for 7-8 year olds but i guess they’re short a few players on the squirts team which is for 9-10 year olds. or, apparently, ace 8 year olds when they need a few players 🙂

he says he wants to go for it. of course, no pressure from us, but we were sort-of nervous for him in during the try-outs competing against the 7 other skaters hand-picked by the coaches. ( the red on his glove is from the dye on the fresh tape we put on the handle of his hockey stick. )

odin did a great job, especially in the drills. he held back a little in the scrimmage but still had some good defense plays. he says he “has a good feeling…” about making the cut. we’ll find out on monday! ( he’s in the yellow jersey with the number 8 )

after taking a year off, odin had such a fun time playing hockey last year that there was no way he was not going to sign up again this year.

he’s back on the ice and enjoying every minute of practice!

he finished last season with great skating skills and it’s amazing to see how much he’s improved over the past 6 months, even though he didn’t have any practice time on “summer ice”.

he’s now such a solid skater, some parents assumed he’s been skating all summer. it’ll be interesting to see where his skills are at by the end of this season ( totally no pressure :-).

odin’s hockey team occasionally plays a brief scrimmage between periods of high school games. it’s a neat opportunity for them to play to the crowds and the parents of the high school players enjoy watching the young kids play while remembering when their own kids looked so little on the ice.

this was the last home game of the season for the boys high school team, so the arena was packed and boisterous since the boys were already ahead by several points by the end of the first period. exciting! ( odin is looking at the camera with a red mouth guard )

just moments before hitting the ice!

the kids had a great time and maybe enjoyed showing off just a bit 🙂

i took a whole mess of photos at the mighty mite hockey jamboree and somehow, inexplicably, it didn’t even occur to me to take a group shot of everyone on odin’s team wearing their medals!

so i make up for it at the end of the following practice. we had to set up fast, ’cause the zamboni was bearing down us!

today, odin had an away game in winona, minnesota which we knew it would be a tough game since those minnesotans take their hockey very seriously, even with the younger kids!

in past games odin has seemed to enjoy playing the defenceman position but this game he played center for much of the game which meant he did a lot more skating from one of the ice to other.

i think he enjoyed the “faceoffs” but he was pooped out at the end!

each game, he gets a little more confident about getting in the middle of the action and going after the puck.

is he smartly assessing the trajectory of the puck so he can intercept, or taking a breather? only he knows for sure 🙂

d’oh! the final score, 7 to 2. the game was fairly close until the last 10 minutes of the final period. i think everyone just ran out of gas.

odin was none to happy about the loss. maybe even just a wee bit sad ;-(

but he got over it quickly and i think understands playing a better team is a great way to learn how to become a better player.

they’ll play many, many more games over the years, so there will definitely be a re-match!

update:

bummed to learn today why odin was sad after the game. apparently, after the game when the kids line up to shake hands and say “good game!” some of the winona kids were saying “you suck!” to the viroqua kids. interestingly, odin didn’t say a word after the game. he casually brought it up today and later confessed it was why he was sad and wondered why they’d say such a thing and if he really was a bad player. coincidentally, an email chain started after odin told us what happened between the other hockey parents as word got out from their kids.

on the one hand, it’s sad to hear the doubt a few words can cause. on the other hand, it’s a great opportunity for odin to learn that he can’t control what others think and say and he certainly shouldn’t pay any mind to poor sports!