Thoughts on Parents

A big part of high school hockey is the Parents. Parents can be very supportive as well as very curious. I try to have a meeting with all the parents at the beginning of the season to go over expectations. At the end of the meeting I open the floor up for the parents to ask questions. The usual questions were where is the best place to get skates sharpened?, where is the best place to buy hockey equipment. I try to cover things like practice time/place, what to do if your child is sick, where will our home rink be and how I run practices during my talk.
During the season I will talk with the parents before and after practice but I will talk to the parents only before games however, some parents try to catch me after the games.
I am interested in some other coaches experiences with parents. Parents if you read this blog feel free to comment any insight will help.

How I run my team

There are some coaches who believe you play your best players most of the time and give the weaker players just a few shifts.
I play all my players evenly because I believe the only way for a team to improve is to have all the players get game experience. If you do not play your freshmen they will become sophomores and still not have improved.
I do shorten my bench for the last two minutes of a game. Not all my players play on the powerplay or the penalty.
I am interested in what other coaches think.

Lets get Started

My first season as head coach has ended with a loss in the first round of the playoffs. The team record was 6-5. Now I have to look to next year and how to improve.