Pins & Needles

Some may have been wondering where I’ve been for the past few weeks, and why the post consistency has decreased.  I’ve been heavily involved in taking the ice down and re-installing it at our local rink.  This weekend I’m actually up in Minnesota watching an NAHL tryout.  As I sit in the lobby observing about a hundred kids coming in (some I’ve coached, some I’ve coached against), one thing is very apparent….everyone is on pins & needles.  This is the final tryout camp for one of the teams in the North American Hockey League.  Players enter with the hopes of making a high-level US-based junior team.  Parents wait nervously in the stands and lobby, sometimes pacing back and forth, chain smoking, or just sitting there fidgeting.  It’s fun hockey to watch because every player on the ice is competing.  There are some obvious cuts and some obvious returning players, but the rest remains very close in talent.  Many perceptions of junior hockey tryouts are they serve primarily as a fundraiser for the organization.  I suppose if you broke it down, it’s easy to see how that would be an easy conclusion to jump to.  Just for fun, here are the numbers of the camp I’m watching:

100 players (approximately) x $250 each player = $25,000

Ice expense of approximately 25 hours at $150/hr = $5,250

Total approximate profit: $19,750 – not bad for a weekend’s work!  No matter what the dollar amount equals out to, my main hope is the players attending are being treated honestly and fairly.  Let me make it clear by saying I am NOT saying they aren’t being treated fairly/honestly.  I hope that when players attend ANY junior tryout (or any other level tryout for that matter), the coaching staff is having a completely honest conversation with the players as opposed to stringing them along to get more money out of them.  Good luck to all the skaters on the ice this weekend!