Hello Skylands Squirt and Peewee house teams.I have had a lot on my mind lately and was prepared to send this to our Vernon families only but I thought I would share it with everyone. I hope you take the time to read this. It has been a long season and while there have been a few bumps in the road with respect to how our house league has been managed we should all be looking forward. If you are receiving this message it means you have been swallowed up by this great game of hockey and you probably can?t get enough. Going into this weekends playoff try and remember a few simple things. Remember when your son or daughter was out there kicking a soccer ball on the ice around and falling down more times than you can count. No matter what those same kids came off the ice red cheeks, runny noses but always a big smile on there face. The past few weeks we have had a couple peewees and bantams score there first goals EVER. The effort of the team mates on each team to give those kids that chance at their first goal was amazing and the excitement to all of the families in the stands was to be admired. We had a dad almost crack his head open last season falling down in the stands in excitement for his sons first goal (he was fortunately ok). I was at a game for my son last week. He was playing in goal and he lost his stick in the corner. A few seconds went by with the play happening around him with no stick. A kid from the other team skated to the corner retrieved the goalie stick and returned it to my son. You should have heard the cheer from both benches and from the stands of both teams. We all have similar stories and those are the ones we should all hold onto. It has taken some time but we (Vernon,Ringwood,Sparta,West Milford and now Warwick) have become a pretty cohesive group of hockey organizations. We meet regularly and are constantly trying to find ways to improve the overall hockey experience while teaching the kids how to compete at the same time.
The playoffs begin on Friday and I challenge us all to be the best teams on our benches. What I mean by this is respect your coaches,the refs as well as your team mates and yes even the team you are trying to beat. Talk to your kids. Leave the trash talking to the goons in the NHL. I challenge the parents in the stands to be the best fans in the rink. What I mean by this is leave the coaching up to the coaches and the refereeing up to the refs. I guarantee you the coach will make a bad decision and the ref will miss a call. Does it really matter? Do I want to hear go getem,pass the puck,nice save goalie and all the other screeches from the stands? By all means ,yes. Show up with your teammates you have been playing with all season, put the kids on the ice and the game will take care of itself. We say it all the time(its just a game) but do we really think it and instill it into our kids? Lets all go out and enjoy the games. If your team should win do it with class and should you lose exhibit the same class in doing so. These kids will all more than likely have to get real jobs some day and these memories and friendships they develop now can last a lifetime.