So the summer is over and all the boys have gone home. It was a great summer with a lot of positives and growth on the part of the young gentlemen who I had the privilege to work with. Hopefully the guys gained some valuable insight towards life and hockey.
They endured 7 long weeks of relentless training and pushing from yours-truly. I can imagine it’s not an easy task to be held to the standard I tried to hold them to all summer but they made it through and I can honestly say that they all excelled and grew both as players and people.
There were a lot of smiles and laughs but mostly there was a ton of sweat, some toilet cleaning, a little bit of sarcasm, and a lot of hard prodding with the stick. I tried to teach them as much about hockey and life that I could in seven short weeks. We often discussed a measuring stick they were trying to achieve – a measuring stick of excellence and not just mediocrity. I asked them only to be as perfect as they could be. They have such lofty goals and have put in a lot of honest work towards achieving their heart’s desire.
This work included: trying to keep their rooms clean (which they failed miserably at), working hard at their ice and dry-land sessions, and to make me proud of them as people around the camp. They succeeded on so many levels and all the management and elder staff at Teen Ranch commented as to the high quality of their characters. I guess this makes me happiest.
I’d now like to offer an official thank you to the guys for behaving so well, for not smashing my Buick Rendezvous (nick-named the “Mazerati” which I entrusted them with for the summer), for working so hard, and being a credit to their parents is the best compliment I can give. To say they’re from good stock must be an understatement because they definitely represented their family names and their home country very well.
So: Jade, Rocko, Bully, Nortz, Soarz, Wardy, Hadgi, Callum, Will, and Stevie – thanks for making it a great summer in 2010 and it would be my pleasure to host you again next summer!
Great post Corey.As Hockey fans we get so wrapped up in the game we sometimes forget the lads are still growing as people and players. So many guys their age find it easy to be bored ,blame everyone but themselves when they do wrong and give their parents nightmares. Being from good background is no guarantee of turning into a decent hard working well balanced individual. The Teen ranch and it's staff clearly play a big part in this too. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteKathy