If He's Good Enough, Someone Will Notice

Wow! I was completely blown away by the support and comments I received after publishing my very first blog post. I want to thank everyone who reached out. I was very nervous about putting it out there, but your kind words and support make it easier for me to keep on going, which is a win win because I am excited that I get to relive all of these experiences by telling you the stories!

So, how do I follow up from a story that talks about the best night of Zack's life and in turn the best night of ours? I think I will take a journey back to when Zack was 7 years old. He was playing Novice hockey in Morell on the Mustangs. At the time we were living in a tiny community about 10 minutes away from Morell and Zack loved every minute of getting to play hockey with his buddies, Darcy, Charlie and Jordan as they all went to the same school also.

One night the boys had a game in Souris and during the game we noticed a gentleman sitting in the stands watching. We knew he wasn't a parent and wondered why he might be there. Well as it turns out, it was a man by the name of Allan Andrews. He was the owner of the hockey development school in Charlottetown. Allan came up to us after the game and said that he was very impressed watching Zack and his friend Darcy and said that they both had potential to be very good hockey players and that he was starting a Spring Hockey Program and would really like them to try out for the team. This blew me away, because remember I said Zack was 7 years old! How could anyone think that a 7 year old had potential in anything? Anyway, we left the rink that night pretty happy and then I started looking into the costs, time commitment, travel, etc that is would take for Zack to play in this Spring Hockey League. It certainly wasn't cheap. I remember talking to my Dad about it and being worried that if we didn't put him into this program then he might miss out or somehow get behind the rest of the players. My Dad, said to me, "It doesn't matter where he plays, if he's good enough someone will notice." I had no idea at the time how often I would refer to that advice over the years, but it definitely took the pressure out of many situations.

For instance, when Zack was 12 or 13 years old, I registered him for a camp at the Allan Andrews Hockey School. This camp was a little different than your regular camps, as it was a Showcase. At the time we didn't really know what that meant, but it didn't matter to Zack because it was another week of hockey in the Summer so he was excited. Every day we would go to the rink and there would be all kinds of tables set up with people from many different hockey schools passing out their flyers and promoting their programs. About midway through the week, Zack got very quiet and believe me that was not like him when he was getting to go to play hockey. So on the way to the rink, I asked him if something was bothering him. He said, "Mom, some people at the rink were talking to me about going to their hockey school." And I said, "Yes, Zack. This is a Showcase and that's why they are here." He then put his head down and said, "But I don't want to move away to go to school." So with my eyes filling with tears as I'm trying to keep the car on the road I reassured him that by no means would he have to move away and for him to just go and enjoy the rest of the week. His smile returned and he went on to have a great week of hockey!

A few years go by and Zack is now in first year Midget and it was his first opportunity to try out for one of the two Major Midget teams on PEI. We were told that this was an important team to make because it is every player's draft year for the Quebec Major Junior League and if you play well, you might get drafted. However, I'm going to digress for a second...you know in hockey how every second year, you play with a different group of kids depending on ages and who makes the team? Well, Zack was always lucky enough to make the AAA team in his first year of a new division so he got to become great friends with many guys who were a year older than him. This team had a great run and won many games and tournaments together. But my favourite memory of this team was Zack's first year in Bantam. The Bantam AAA Pownal Red Devils won the provincials and had the honour of representing PEI at the Atlantics in Newfoundland. That was an awesome experience. Honestly, I don't even remember how we did at hockey but I know the games were close and the kids and parents all had a great time! It was just the perfect way for this group of kids and parents to end their time together, because the older guys would move on and Zack and the guys on the team that were his age, would have the younger group of guys coming up to the team next year. I remember thinking during that trip that this would be the very last time this group of kids would ever play hockey together. Anyway, back to his first year of Midget. Tryouts began for the Charlottetown Islanders Major Midget team. Zack went to the first couple of tryouts, and ended up getting a banged up shoulder. While recovering from his injury, one day Zack said to us, "I think I would like to play Midget AAA this year, and have one more year with all the boys." (Remember, the guys he played with every second year?) We discussed it and said well if that's what you want then go for it! I can remember parents saying to us, what are you doing? This is his draft year for the "Q"! We simply said that this is what Zack wanted and we weren't about to force him to play somewhere he didn't want to play. One parent said to me, "You are crazy, you're ruining his opportunity for getting drafted." And guess what I said to this parent? Yep, you got it, I said, "It doesn't matter where he plays, if he's good enough someone will notice!" And I guess someone did!