Hockey- Fundraising and Frustration
Josh started hockey this year and it is fundraising time. You can help Josh and support the Cook County Youth Hockey Association by purchasing great food from Schwan’s. All you have to do is go to their website, http://www.schwansfundraising.com/ and enter the Campaign ID of 1002355. Buy product online and it will be delivered to your door via Schwan’s within a few weeks. Our local youth hockey program will then receive a 30% kickback from all purchases made under our ID#. The fundraiser officially ends on the 15th of November so please place your order soon.
Cook County Schools does not have a hockey program. It’s hard to believe that an area with this much ice wouldn’t have a team, but I guess that is funding. The closest school that has hockey is Silver Bay which is an hour drive from Grand Marais. There are some hockey players that ride an hour each way to play on that high school team and if Josh were to play he would have to add on another hour to get to and from the end of the Gunflint Trail.
I tried to discourage Josh from playing hockey because of the time and travel involved. They can only practice indoors until the curling club in town takes over the indoor arena on the 18th of the month. Practices have been 3 days a week; Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. With Abby in Girl Scouts after school on Thursdays and church to attend on Sundays I have been driving the Trail way too much.
Josh really wanted to play hockey despite our best wishes so we agreed to it. Once he began practices he became intimidated by the children who were much better skaters than he. He went to some practices and then complained that he no longer wanted to play. He sat on the sidelines, cried, and refused to skate, much to our frustration. We didn’t want to force him to play, but since it was his idea we didn’t want him to quit just because he wasn’t as good as the other skaters. So, we explained our reasoning to Josh, told him he was going to practice and he could either choose to stand on the ice in his skates or practice on the ice with the other players.
Thankfully Josh has chosen to participate in the practices. It would have been easy for me to just say, "Thank Goodness he isn’t good, now I don’t have to drive to town so much." But what would that have been telling Josh? To give up when the going gets tough? To say one thing and then do another? To let him believe we didn’t think he could ever get better? To allow him to let down the team, the coaches and himself? I think I am doing what is best for him, how about you?