11/20/2023
❤️❤️
A note from a hockey mom…
My 10-year-old played hard today. Lots of hustle, great passing, some awesome shots on goal, but in the end, lost in a shut-out. That’s just the way youth sports goes sometimes—even when you play your hardest, sometimes the other team is just better.
But this post isn’t actually about him. Or his teammates. It’s about another group of players, much older than 10.
And it’s about what they did as my kids’ team, feeling defeated and exhausted, skated off the ice and into the locker room.
This group of what appeared to be high school boys were standing around, probably waiting for our locker room to clear out. They weren’t in pads yet, still in the typical dress clothes lots of older players wear, especially when traveling to another team’s rink.
As our kids (who seem big to us moms, but all of a sudden looked so little compared to high school players) left the ice, these older boys lined up and every one of them fist-bumped our 10 and 11-year olds.
“Nice game, fellas,” they said.
I don’t know if they had paid attention to the score and if they knew we’d lost (and not by a little). I don’t know if they do this at every rink they play it, when younger players pass by.
But as a mom of an impressionable 10-year-old, I’d like to say thank you to the coaches and parents who are raising players like this. To have a bunch of high school hockey players fist bump you and tell you “good job”, we’ll that’s what youth sports are really all about.
We know our kids are going to have tough losses. Games where the other team is just better. Games when we are simply outmatched, and even when we give our all, we feel the sting of defeat. But we hope that far more than winning and losing, that we’re raising good, kind athletes who know how to work together as a team, how to dig deep and find that last drop of energy just when they think their tank is empty, and how to lift one another up as they battle through a toss loss.
And we hope that they realize the value in setting an example for younger players. The importance of leadership. The impact they can have, as giant teenagers, when they fist bump a bunch of little kids and say “nice game.”
Thank you to this team. Thank you to your parents and coaches for raising athletes with the right values. I don’t know what town you came from today, but your actions mattered.
And this mom is grateful. 🏒💕
