THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!
Or Is It Simply The Way Of The Future?????
"HOW
ABOUT CHANGING GOALIES ON THE FLY?"
This one is for all minor hockey goaltenders and their
parents. Who on earth came up with the bright idea of making a young
hockey player give up an entire evening just to sit on the bench and watch
his team play?
There is no reason why goalies cannot change every 3 or 4 minutes
during a game. While players are changing lines, it takes no longer for
goalies to change. By changing goalies throughout the game, coaches have
an opportunity to give them instructions and encouragement. They also feel
part of the team and can talk to their teammates while on the bench.
Equipment can be adjusted if needed.
Changing goalies on a regular basis during the game will also force the
rest of the players to focus more on the other team, especially if one
goaltender is weaker than the other. Teams sometimes play differently in
front of different goaltenders. It also reinforces the "team
concept" in that wins and losses are shared by the entire team. A
shutout becomes a true team accomplishment with both goaltenders involved.
In the older divisions, it is even possible for goaltenders to change
on the fly while the play is in the opposite end. As for keeping warm and
being prepared, skating back and forth to the bench will take care of
that.
For many readers, this may seem like a radical suggestion, but it is no
more radical than expecting a player to get fully dressed and sit out an
entire game.
2 years ago while a goalie coach of 9
and 10 year olds, the head coach told me he was going to change
the goalies every five minutes so that I would have a chance to
talk with the goalies about good and bad on the ice. He also said
that he had seen way to many goalies counting rivets in the
roof when not playing. Having played nets all my life I
thought he was nuts. In the first game of the year an
inexperienced referee told us we could not change the goalies on
the whistles. We did not argue but decided to stick to the
plan, however, we would change them on the fly. It was an
excellent experience because I got to work with both goalies
throughout the year. We had so much fun doing this and the
kids loved it. It also taught our goalies to read and react
to game situations away from our end, pay attention to the time
and change accordingly. He also told the goalies not to allow an
icing, therefore they had to skate out of their net and play the
puck. It taught them skating and puck handling skills early
in their development, as well as passing to the D men.
Thanks Don, that was a great year.
Les Wilson
Cold Lake, Ab
The goalies certainly could do this. We often drive 2 or 3
hours to a game
where our son sits if it isn't his turn. The only difficult
area is the
stats so you'd have to dispense with the stats or have someone very
good
tracking them. You would need to just do a plus/minus type of
tracking. We
also see him hang out a lot in practices as well. We count on
private
lessons that he goalies for to get his workouts, and his regular
goalie
lessons.
Sharon Kilborn-Keeney of Southern California
Goalie Duo Beats the Odds
In youth ice hockey the goalies are generally adversaries – made
that way by
the circumstances surrounding their position – only one can play
in any
given game at a time. That fosters competition for ice time
and promotes
bad feelings between the goalies and the goalie parents. This
is the only
position in the game that creates this particular situation.
Many coaches
worsen this situation with a front and a backup goalie – a recipe
for
disaster with children’s feelings.
Two Southern California goalies are beating the odds by chumming up
and
playing as a team. John Keeney and Luke Shaffer are ten year
old goalies on
the California Wave Squirt A team – teamed up for the second year
on a team
playing at the highest level the area offers for their age group.
These
goalies are buddies off as well as on the ice. They spend the
night
frequently and play together as often as they can even though their
homes
are an hour’s drive apart. On road trips they always spend
the night and
play together.
On the ice between each period the two confer on the players they
are
facing – with a glove tap sendoff to whoever owns the net for the
night.
The coaches alternate their league and tournament games and split
the
exhibition games - this also keeps feelings on an even keel.
The boys share
a goalie lesson every Monday night (for the second year in a row)
with
goalie coach Petr Yaros. They each have their own separate
goalie lesson on
other nights, but the tandem lesson keeps them focused and together.
After
their lesson they do a clinic then head on down to Panda Express
followed by
a stop at the Baskin Robbins next door – creatures of habit, they
have their
routines set in stone.
At practice the boys look like twins they are so close in size and
style.
There are differences - John’s pads are black and white, Luke’s
are orange
and blue; John’s helmet has dragons, Luke’s has flames; Luke is
slightly
taller and weighs more, John is a few months older; Luke is more
outgoing,
John is a little shy. But they’re both stand up goalies, big
and tall, and
both cover the net well. They’re both super competitive, and
they’ve found
a way to compete in the practices and clinics and team up at the
games – a
lesson for others to follow. Many of the team parents can’t
tell which
goalie is in the net because their styles are so similar, and they
often
yell encouragement to the wrong goalie during games.
The Shaffer’s and the Keeney’s also work together well –
photographing,
videoing, and hauling the boys around. If one family can’t
make a trip,
both boys go with the other family. It has been a good
situation for both
families, and has kept the fun in the youth hockey for both
families.
This year the two goalies in league play gave up only 19 goals in 17
games
between the two of them, and in playoffs a total of 2 goals in 5
games.
They had an amazing four shutouts in preliminary rounds out of four
games.
The boys made a pact to shutdown the competition and they blazed
their way
through the round robin and semi finals with a stellar performance.
Their
team just won the Southern California championships and in true
partnership,
the goalies first picture after the team picture was of the two
goalies
holding the Scaha cup in triumph and in tandem.
Sharon Kilborn-Keeney of Southern California
Changing goalies on the
Fly, what a horrible thought! or is it? I got to experience
this when I was Reffing in the Valley East NOHA pee wee division.
this coach who will remain nameless "Bob" decided it would
be a great way to keep his goal tenders in the game. so every
3 or 4 minutes on the fly his goalie would come to the bench and the
other would jump out on to the ice. Is there a penalty for too
many goalies on the ice? or why on earth would a team decide to do
this? the coach is making a joke of the position. I heard comments
like this in the lobby after the games. But of all of the
games I did for that team that year you know who I never heard
complain. The goalies. they really seemed to enjoy
playing in every game, and when mistakes where made guess what, you
could talk to the goalie on the bench and help make corrections
during the game rather than after the period was over. This
may be something we should consider more often. why should
kids sit on the bench?
In you editorial about hockey and
your love of the game and officials you forgot to mention that every
official on the ice is someone's child. I am currently still
doing games although not in the Valley any more but a little farther
north. I get to see new officials just starting out get yelled
at, by coaches and irate parents who blame everything on the ref's.
You know the teams who have coaches who yell, have parents who yell,
have kids on the ice yelling and getting penalties and then the
coaches and parents wonder why the kids are so mouthy. Last
season I took my son who was 3 to a Bantam A game in Haileybury.
We were to watch friends kids play. A couple minutes into the
game one parent stands up and starts yelling at the ref he never sat
down again for the entire period, pacing up and down, screaming
every chance he had at the officials. My 3 year old who
associates all refs with me, asked me why that man was always
screaming at me. he couldn't understand. At the end of the
period the man came over to talk to us and my son berried his head
in my jacket. he was afraid of this man. the man asked
why he was afraid of him and my son screamed at him "cause you
never stopped yelling at my daddy!" with a strange look
on his face the man asked me what he meant. I explained that I
was a ref and that he never stopped yelling at them. He
laughed and said I am not like that. Well I think he listened.
because for the next period that man would go to stand up and yell
and he would stop himself and sit back down. at the end of the game
he came over to see my son and apologised for yelling at me and that
he never realised that he was doing this.
As an official I can give you
hundreds of stories about parents coaches and players that would
make you wonder why I would want to ref this sport. but it is
for the love of the game.
