Monday, May 20, 2013

Choke

These past two days were a wonderful time, and our weekend was pretty much perfect, thanks to friends, family and little kids dancing around with pink teddy bears. However, there was one little blip that made things just a tad shy of absolute perfection: Sam's hockey tryouts. 

Sam is seven years old. He's never had to actually try out for anything before. And apparently we didn't  do a very good job of explaining to him that it was basically going to be just like a practice session. On Saturday morning, he was limping. 'I don't think I should go to tryouts, mom. My foot hurts.' I sent him to see Dr. Dad, and he wasn't entirely sure Sam was faking it, but wasn't entirely sure if he was hurt, either. Since he had been fine and dandy until just that morning we decided to go.

As soon as we arrived, he asked why so many kids were there. All along he had been thinking that he was going to have to go out there and skate all alone, and I think he seemed relieved when he realized that were going to be 25 other kids out there with him. But as soon as he relaxed a little, this guy walked in.


So I guess Pascal Dupuis lives in our town, and I guess his kid/kids play hockey. Sam was nervous once again. He looked around for some of his friends who play hockey here (which is why he wants to) but couldn't find them. 

They got out on the ice and he seemed to be calming down, but as soon as the actual drills began, I knew he wasn't really going to give it his all. The very first kid in his group to do the drill was awesome, and Sam has this really annoying habit of not wanting to do something if he can't be the best at it. His skating was lazy and he did seem to be weirdly not using his one foot. The he fell, and it was pretty much downhill from there.

Will he get on a team? Probably. I don't think they turn too many kids away, and even if they do there were some younger ones who would likely get cut before him. But I honestly can't say for sure. And if he doesn't it's going to be a bad, sad scene. For all of us. Keep your fingers crossed!

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1 comment:

Arizaphale said...

Oh I hate this about kid's sport. Our netball team did it once (the whole 'trying out' thing) and the feedback was so negative we never did it again. The club now has about 30 teams in the comp and they are all based on friendship groups. Competitive? Meh. Occasionally...but at least the kids enjoy playing.
Hope he gets in with some friends!