Life Has Changed

On July 24th my house and car were destroyed by fire which was started by an arsonist who has not been caught yet. Now I am getting back to preparing for the upcoming hockey season. Before I work on practice planning I  have to start to look for new coaching equipment which include getting new skates, gloves and a helmet.. I lost all these items in the fire.  More thoughts to come.

Looking for an assistant coach

As I start to think about the upcoming season the first thought is of my staff. Right now I have a team manager and one assistant coach. I am looking for at least one other coach who might have some background working with goalies. I would prefer this coach not be a parent but I can be flexible on this preference. Next preparing for the parent/player meetings.

What was SI Thinking?

I had been waiting for my Sports Illustrated issue with the Boston Bruins on the cover. I called SI and they said they were offering a championship package but there would be no cover. Hockey takes another slap in the face. The SI issue that should have the Bruins on the cover actually had golf on the cover. An SI cover with the Stanley Cup Champions on it does more to help the sport then a championship package. Not as many people buy a championship package as may buy an issue of SI. This would seem to show  that SI thinks less of hockey then golf. It would be nice to have SI explain their decision but that probably will not happen. If you show the Champions of baseball, football and basketball then hockey should get equal coverage. What do you think?

Another website

As I start to prepare for the upcoming season I have been looking on the internet. I was looking through websites looking for different drills because I like to change up my practices and use new drills every season. One website I found is HockeyShare.com. The site has some drills, a blog and a newsletter all that can be useful for coaches.
   If you have an interesting drill feel free to share.

Advance Warning

The other day my team manager called and let know that at this point it looks like we will have 24 players on the team. While it is nice to have 24 players I can only dress 21 players. If I get 25 or more players I will have to start a JV team. I will use our pre-season tournament to get a better idea how the team will shake out.

Summertime

Summertime is not exactly the time to think of ice hockey but being a Head Coach I do spend a little time thinking of the upcoming season which is three months away. At this point I have decided to have two organizational meeting in September or early October. One meeting will be with all the new players and parents. Right now it looks like I may have as many as 10 new players. The second meeting will be with the whole team. Right now there are no off season/summer practices for my team. Next I will start work on a practice plans for the start of the season and topics for the organizational meetings.

USA Hockey website

During the off season one place to keep track of what is going on in the hockey world is the USA Hockey web site. The site has something for coaches, parents and players of all ages. USA Hockey also has facebook and twitter sites so, check them out.