Hockey

By: Dad

Matthew was always an athletic child and loved being active.  When he turned 8, he stated that he wanted to play hockey but at the time he was involved with drum lessons and Tae Kwon Do and we thought that having him join hockey may have been a little too much for him.

Over the next year or two, he would still occasionally ask about joining hockey and so in September of 2000, Matthew joined up as an 11 year old Atom House league player who up until this point had only been on skates once or twice.  After watching him in evaluations, I said to his Mom that he is probably going to get discouraged and quit since all of the other kids were much better skaters.  I could never have been more wrong - the more he fell down, the more determined he became to learn how to skate.

Matthew was placed on the Atom "B" house league Leafs that was coached by Jeff Sullivan and it was on this team that Matthew met one of his best friends, Jason Duggan, for the very first time.  It was also when I became involved in hockey as a coach.

At the start of our second game, Jeff asked me to help him on the bench open and close the gates for the kids as they came and went.  Since I was at the rink watching anyway, I thought great, at least I can participate with Matthew's activity and it put me back on a hockey bench for the first time in over 20 years.  I thought Matthew was going to bust with pride when Jeff announced in the dressing room, that I would be helping him on the bench......I jokingly said that I was the assistant coach in charge of opening and closing the gates.....little did I know that this was going to change to something a lot more significant. We went on to win our second game of the year with a 12 goal margin and did the same for games three and four.

After our fourth win, Jeff called me on a Thursday evening and asked if I would be interested in becoming head coach of the team since he had other hockey obligations that did not permit him to stay with our team.  I almost swallowed my tongue!  I pleaded my ignorance to Jeff and the fact that I haven't even been on skates for about 18 years but I said I would think it over.  Matthew decided my answer when I told him about the coaching offer.  The smile on his face was enough for me to decide right there and then that I would become his coach.  This was the start of my and Matthew's dual involvement in hockey which I continue to this day.

My inaugural year of coaching couldn't have been any better.  We went on to win the championship for our division, Matthew made a couple of lifelong friends and more importantly we spent our weekends together.  TO BE CONTINUED.....