Road Trip-extended report

In Metropolitan area, like Ottawa, hockey teams are divided into 3 categories. A, B and C.  Generally the A level is the competitive level, B is considered house league and C is a developmental level.  This is easy to accomplish in larger area because they have a population base of players to support the different levels.  In the Nepean Minor Hockey Association there are at least 20 Novice teams. 6 A, 8 B and 6 C.

In smaller communities there is not as a large a base of players so they often only have 1 level.  This was the case at the Petawawa tournament.  The local teams were slotted as B level teams, in reality they were equivalent to the Nepean A level teams, and in some cases an AA level competitive team.  In other words the local rural teams out-classed all the metropolitan teams.  There were some amazingly skilled players out of the Pembroke/Petawawa clubs. Keep the name Turner In the back of your mind for the next 10 years.  I will guarantee that at some point on the future you will see that name at the OHL and maybe the NHL level. This 8-year-old kid was a natural hockey player and showed a level of talent I have never scene before.

Now as to the weekend itself.  Liam and I were originally scheduled to drive up the Saturday morning for the first game, but with the forecast calling for snow the Friday night/Sat morning we went up a night early.  Boy am I ever glad we did because the snow hit hard.  As it turned out many other players and families came up Friday night as well.  They boys all congregated at the hotel pool on Friday night. They went from the pool to the hot tub to the ping-pong table and back.  At one point all 8 of them were crowded into the hot tub playing a symphony using armpits and other bodily parts as musical instruments.  The howls of laughter as each one took turns elevating the skill of armpit farts into a fine art was well worth the price of admission.  It was 10:00 pm before we got the boys rounded up and settled into bed.

Saturday started with an 8:00 am game; we returned back to the hotel for more swimming and some hot Nintendo Game Cube action in the coach’s room.  After our afternoon game we all went over to East Side Mario’s for a team dinner (30 of us) and to watch the Senators pummel the Maple Leafs. One of the dads is a die-hard Leafs fan and was decked out in his full fan outfit.  At one point he went over to the kids table to talk to his son, the boys seeing his outfit started booing and jeering him so loudly that he could not get a word in edgewise, he retreated with his tail between his legs. The restaurant manager actually had to come over and quiet the boys (we later found out he was a Leafs fan as well).  After dinner we went back to the hotel for more swimming.

Sunday we started the day with another 8:00 am game, since we were playing the game at the arena located on CFB Petawawa base, we headed over to the “Army Mess” hall for breakfast. Driving through the base the boys were pumped by the vehicles in the Mechanized Brigade Compound and the “army guys” eating breakfast in the mess hall.

By the time I got Liam home last night, he was about as exhausted as I have ever seen him before, but exhausted in a good way.   And even though I was “well behaved” over the weekend I came home exhausted as well.