Arena Notes | Hands on the steering wheel

I began leading the team this week as head coach. I created the practice plan, talked to the kids, and assigned tasks to the assistant coaches. It was hard work getting there and it was stressful, but we managed to pull off a close win.

When I put together the practice plan, I knew that there were two things I wanted to work on: passing the puck and playing positions. I went down the rabbit hole of Internet hockey drill repositories.

It takes a long time for me to read a drill. I'm like a kid who is learning to read prose— I use my finger and sound out the words, and I still get things wrong.

I picked out a bunch of passing drills. I went to shinny twice with my son and I practiced putting out cones and giving instructions. Not surprisingly, I'm terrible at it. By Thursday, I chose a set of six to email to Coach Matthew and Coach Mahmood.

Coach Matthew offered to lead off with a skating drill. I accepted gladly.

We only got through four of the drills that I had planned. And the kids were generally terrible at them. There was a lot of skating, so they got tired. There was a lot of passing, but not much shooting. I think the kids didn't have a lot of fun. The saving grace was the game of British Poke Check at the end.

Before the game, I prepared the lines (assigning players to positions), something that Coach Matthew normally does. We compared notes and I made a couple of tweaks, but we weren't far apart.

Before the game, I led the team meeting, something I had never done before. I  announced the lines. I reminded them to pass the puck and to be ready to receive the puck. The best passer would receive an entire bag of Kit Kat Minis.

I asked Coach Mahmood to run the defence, which is something I would normally do. I wanted to listen in on how Coach Matthew ran the offence, and I wanted to watch the game as a whole. I stood on the bench to get a better view of the ice. I only fell off once and as far as I know no one noticed.

Our opponents scored their first goal 30 seconds into the game. By about 12 minutes into the game, we were behind by 5 goals. We were letting goals in and players were generally not passing. Coach Matthew kept saying, “Lots of game left to play.”

About 5 minutes into the second period, the team started coming together. Defence got tighter. Passing started to happen. We gradually started to close the gap. We scored the winning goal with less than a minute left to play. Our goalie made a crucial stop to end the game.

Then, it was time to hand out the Kit Kat. I told the kids that I was proud of their grit. I called out two runner-ups, before giving the candy to the winner. All three players are normally quiet and unassuming. Positive reinforcement for behaviour you want to see and starve behaviour that you don't want to see.

I am proud of myself. Usually, the team wins and I feel like I didn't have anything to do with it. But this was different. I identified the direction, I chose the drills, and I motivated the kids.

I feel like I'm driving the bus now. I feel like I deserve to be called Coach Susan. I'm not taking a back seat to the ACs, but still working collaboratively. And I think this is what the ACs want too. They didn't want to be Head Coach, for their own reasons. My relationship with them is collegial, but not close, and I appreciate that they've been holding space for me to step up.