'Tis the Season

Of course when I say "the season" I mean the hockey season. Not that hockey doesn't go on all year, because of course it does, but it's now really the official season. Being a hockey Mom this season has a little bit of new meaning - after all, everyone is checking to see if you're wearing your lipstick and to see how much you resemble a Pit Bull. I can't think of one thing I have in common with Sarah Palin (except the obvious xx chromosomes and the characteristics that come with them). I certainly am not her brand of Hockey Mom - no lipstick and no bullish tendancies, pit or otherwise. I am looking forward to another great year with the best hockey parents I know - the ones with girls on Hockey Girl's team.

There was a lot of drama in getting the team going this year. Would they have enough girls? What level should they play at? How can we balance the need for good competition against travelling all over MN and Canada to play our games? They ended up being a 10U A team - which means that they are playing girls hockey (one option was being a Squirt B team - which is in the regular league that allows 9-10 y.o. boys and girls to play together, but as a practical matter there is generally only 1 or 2 girls per team) at the highest level they can for this age group. Biggest problem with this idea is that there aren't very many 10U A teams unless we drive 2+ hours to get to them. Some parents (most notably Curling Man) thought they should be a 10U B team. That would allow them to play the more local area teams. Last year, when our girls were a year younger and most of those teams had girls a year older, we beat all but one of those teams every time we played them. Now our girls are the oldest they can be and still play at this level - so we don't see the other teams as being much competition. But how much competition do 10 y.o. girls need? Maybe it'd just be fun to play together and win a bunch of games - so thought Curling Man. Coaches had a different idea, and they stood firm - so an A team theya re. This means our first games will be in Brainard, then Thunder Bay. After that we'll also see St. Paul and Detroit Lakes. Who knows where else, we'll play. Who knows if we'll win or lose. Being the non-pitbullish Hockey Mom, I don't care. Just give me my hot chocolate, my hand warmers and the other non-Palinesque Moms to chat with on the bleachers.