Movin' on up

The Boy starts practice in the next level of hockey tonight, on a team, with real games.

He earned this position. He actually had to spend hours practicing drills and finally take an evaluation test and pass it in order to move up.

Last year, all the kids got to play regardless of skills level. The only prerequisite was age and that was a national regulation. I guess this age of touchy-feely (as MFH refers to "being PC") has rubbed off on me somewhat, because I preferred that. I think boys are innately competitive enough, and we don't need to foster that characteristic by requiring one to be better than another at such an early age. I didn't expect to have to worry about tryouts until a much later time in his life.

In spite of all that, we made a very big deal of his accomplishment and took him to that mouse place for pizza and games to celebrate.

He is the only five year old on a team of six and seven year olds.

When asked how long he's been playing hockey, he replied, "I've been playing hockey most of my life."