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Warrior Glory Story - September 2009
"A Little Advice, A Whole ‘Nother Level" by Ambler
 “Play as
hard as you can while having as much fun as you can. If you've done
everything you can then you can play guilt and regret free hockey.” Nate
Handrahan, Coach, Weekend Warriors
I stepped onto the ice not knowing what to expect.
There were 32 women, 3 coaches and one hour to prove I could do something
more than fall on my ass or play hot potato with the puck. Pretty daunting
considering I’ve only been playing for a year and have never tried out for
anything before. Oh, yeah, did I mention I’m 40….ish?
As we circled the ice, warming up with one of the
assistant coaches, I tried to size everyone up and place them at the
appropriate level, hoping there were more D’s than C’s because that’s where
I wanted to be – on the C team. I wasn’t asking for much – just to move up
one level. Just to prove that a year of hard work had made a difference.
Gotta admit, at that moment, everyone looked like B’s to me.
“Kick some ass, and don't drink too much tonight!”
Rick Parisi, Owner, Weekend Warriors
It’s been a whole year of firsts for me – first pair of
hockey skates, first team, first game, first concussion, first shot, first
block, first goal, first crushing disappointment, first win, first
championship and of course, my first hockey camp.
I came out of the Dallas camp in April feeling a little
stronger, a little faster, a little wiser and a little hung-over. I’d
focused on a few of my weaknesses, strengthened some of my strengths.
Everyone noticed the improvement and even though I didn’t get that fabled
“Warrior Hat Trick” in the spring league (or any at all!) my confidence was
at an all-time high…until a week later when our coach said the “T” word.
“The only thing you can control is your attitude,
your conditioning, & your competitive spirit.” Nick Carrier, Coach, Weekend
Warriors 
Unlike the previous season where I’d walked onto the
team merely because it was expanding and needed players no matter what their
level and experience, this season they were expanding again and wanted to
ice a competitive team. Fifty women had indicated interest in about 39 spots
on 3 teams – Adult B, C & D. Tryouts were the only way to handle it.
My first instinct was to panic. I’m good at that. I
chucked my confidence in the trashbin and resigned myself to a year of
solitary hours at stick-n-puck because there was no way I’d even make the
D-team this time. Tryouts are HUGE and I wasn’t up to the challenge.
My second instinct was to stop being a big baby and
register for the Vail camp. That’s right – two Warrior camps in two months
because I’m just that kind of crazy. I needed an edge. I needed to be
faster, my transitions sharper, my ice sense stronger, my shot…who was I
kidding? I didn’t have a shot! I needed a shot. A wrister, a snapper –
anything that made the puck do more than dribble its way along the ice onto
an opposing player’s stick.
I focused my energy into gaining whatever ground I
could while I was there (when I wasn’t focused on drinking as much beer as
possible of course) – I pestered Coach Jim for 2 days until he fixed my shot
and asked the others to get in my face to help me perform under pressure. I
brought home a new transition, new ideas on defensive strategy, more
confidence in my stick-handling and honestly, a great support system in the
coaches who were still answering my questions after camp (some of them
MONTHS after camp).
I felt ready.
“Just play your game.... don't do anything you
wouldn't normally do in any other game! Keep everything simple. Don't try
and be a Crosby or an Ovechekin...just be you” Rob Boyle, Coach, Weekend
Warriors
The warm ups ended
and the drills started. New drills I’d never seen before – how is that
possible? Ten minutes later I’m sitting on the bench in a red penny next to
a B-level defenseman from last season wondering how I was going to keep up
with her. I mean she’s only been skating all her life. She only coaches for
a living. She only…oh hell, I may as well have been sitting next to Bobby
freakin’ Orr.
But I put that out of
my mind and focused on the task at hand: twenty shifts, one shift at a time.
I played my game –
completely defensive, not straying too far from my zone. I didn’t pinch up.
I concentrated on breaking the puck out. I kept my head up and looked for
time and space. Amazingly, I found it time and again. Sometimes it was back
to my partner, once it was between a forward’s legs, once around the net and
once, it was right onto the waiting stick of our forward in the slot –
another B-player that one-timed it in. Probably the sweetest pass I’ve ever
made in my life.
“You need to be a presence on the ice so be the
hardest worker and a bulldog!” Rob Boyle, Coach, Weekend Warriors
The second day of tryouts I found myself sitting next
to Bobby Orr again. Worse yet, the coach had loaded the yellow team up with
B-players. Red was full of C & D players – including me. Bobby and I spent
our twenty shifts that night scrambling. I felt like I was everywhere at
once, in the corner, back to the net, back to the corner, try to clear the
puck, it comes right back. Ten shifts in and we’re sucking wind, but we
haven’t let in a goal.
That’s when she tells me to take the puck up if I get a
chance. I needed to show the coach I could carry it in a pinch.
Crap.
I love my blueline. I HATE the other one. For whatever
reason, I can make a beautiful run up the ice only to lose the puck one step
over the line. There doesn’t have to be a defenseman there. I can lose it
all on my own without anyone’s help thank you very much. But I took her
advice to heart and promised myself I’d try if I got the chance. I’d worked
on it in Dallas with Coach Nick, worked on it again in Vail, so why not?
"Keep your head up & when
in doubt just shoot it... you'll be fine...." Andre Deveaux, Winger, Toronto
Maple Leafs
My chance came on a line change. The scrimmage was set
to minute shifts, full change on the buzzer, leave the puck where it is.
This time, the puck lay on the far side of the neutral zone. I jumped over
the boards, caught yellow out of the corner of my eye, dug in for some speed
and tapped that puck one stick blade before she did. I caught up to it,
swept it up on my backhand, motored through the rest of the neutral zone,
deked my way right around a winger, left around a defender and took what can
only be described as a wicked point-blank shot at the net from the high
slot.
It didn’t go in. It bounced off the goalie’s shoulder
and onto the top of the net.
Did you hear that? I BEAT someone to the puck, carried
it PAST the blueline without dropping it, DEKED two players and then MY shot
actually hit the goalie ABOVE her skate blades! I couldn’t do any of that in
April, let alone all of that together during a game.
I could have retired right then and there with a
pleasant wave to the fans and a tap of my stick. Instead, I finished the
last few shifts, listened to the post-camp pep talk, packed my gear and
tried to walk out the door. I didn’t get very far.
The coach stopped me.
Crap.
“I know you can do it!!!!"
Nate Handrahan, Coach, Weekend Warriors
One look at him and I knew my C-team dream was about to
die. He knew that’s where I wanted to be – I’d made that perfectly clear to
him and anyone who’d listen. I’d played well, had a great tryout, but….
There’s always a “but!”
“I’m sorry,” he said, “but you belong on the B-team.”*
*Results not typical. Individual results may vary.
Success is inversely proportional to the amount of beer consumed, indirectly
proportional to the amount not consumed and directly proportional to
cup-flipping abilities.
The quotes above are
from all the last minute advice the coaches and friends gave me. Thanks to
all of them for their support and to Rick for creating the camp that got me
there.
Warrior Glory Story - February 2009
You Can
Teach An Old Defenseman New Tricks:
The
Story of Mat the Goalie
Picture it… Your playing in
a beer league and your goalie calls out on you at the last second (never
happens right?). The captain calls around and around looking for a fill-in…
the only one available… John “The Colander” Smith* (*names have been
changed to protect tender feelings). The sieve shows… let’s in 6 or 7
and you wonder if it would have been better to play with six skaters, like
you did a few weeks prior, when you were the “unofficial goalie” and
actually won the game (with a few nice bruises for the effort)… well that
was me.
A couple of adult beverages
later, I find myself on E-Bay, Craigslist and online gear discounters,
piecing together a set of goalie equipment… (Have I mentioned I was 31 at
the time?). What’s wrong with me? A sentiment I heard and continue to hear
from myself, family, friends, people around the office and even actual NHL
goaltenders (Scott Clemmenson asked if I was on crack, Steve Valiquette had
a similar opinion… while they stand in front of Chara’s slapshot on a
routine basis… so who’s more crazy?, but I digress).
After talking to my captain
and our steady goalie, the plan was for me to figure out this goalie thing
and be our fill-in, while still playing defense, a position I have played
for over 25 years. So I started in adult newbie hockey clinics as a goalie
and I learned a lot. I watched DVD’s, read books, and justified my
satellite subscription to NHL CenterIce as “research”… but it wasn’t enough,
I needed a coach.
After poking around the
Internet, I came upon Weekend Warriors. The philosophy was perfect, it was
right in my back yard, they limited the goalies per camp and they had a
dedicated goalie coach… HELLO… SIGN ME UP!
 In
the time between signing up for camp and camp starting, our regular goalie
decided that, going forward, he did not want to play ice with any
regularity. Guess who was the new full time goalie for the mighty Sewer
Rats? That’s right…your hero. I muscled my way through the summer season,
won my first playoff games and made it the finals. In the break between the
playoffs and the finals was camp. I would end up starting camp on Thursday
afternoon, going through camp and having Game one of the best of three
finals the Sunday afternoon after camp ended. We were slated to face a team
that, for lack of a better term, “owned me” during the regular season.
The weekend of the
Morristown camp, the goalie coach was Coach Jim. He stressed adding tools
to our respective toolboxes throughout the weekend. When I got to camp, I
think I had a stripped phillips-head screwdriver, a beat up hammer, and an
allen wrench that came with some shelves I bought from Ikea. By the time I
left camp… I had Home Depot.
I was amazed at how much I
learned in such a short period. The camp, while hard work, was some of the
most fun I have had in a long time.
I left camp, got home,
crashed on the couch for a few hours and then it was off to game one of the
finals. Using tools, so new they still had the wrapper on them (and that
“New-Tool-Smell”), we won the first game. We dropped game two but it was
close. Two nights later, we won game three! There is NO WAY we would have
been able to pull that off had it not been for my weekend with the Warriors.
So far this season, I’ve
lowered by GAA, got my save percentage up, added a couple of shut outs, won
both of our overtime shootouts and the team is hovering around first place
in our division. I plan on attending two Warrior camps this year and at
least going back once a year after that.
There is still a lot to
learn about being a goalie, but as long as Weekend Warriors is out there, my
game will continue to improve, as well as my enjoyment of playing goal!
Note: This story
was written and submitted by Mat L. from Manville, NJ. Mat is an
alumnus of our 2008 camp in Morristown, NJ.
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