Arizona Hockey Union

Hoody Hockey

VALUE OF PERSPECTIVE

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:00:00 AM


VALUE OF PERSPECTIVE

My Phone rang one Monday Morning in October 2007 from one of my 2nd year veteran goaltenders. “Hoody, I have been thinking about it all summer and I don’t think I have the mental mind set to be a number 1 goalie at the Junior A level at this time.” “What I was thinking is that I would like to have an opportunity to make your team as a forward.”

I did not hesitate in my reply. “Hey Fitz, see you at practice on Tuesday.” Tuesday came and everyone thought it was some kind of prank or coaching mind game when I introduced a new forward . We had some high skill in this group. Eventual 85 goal scorer Blake Barkwell (Adrian College NCAA), smartest Polar Bear player of all time Josh Laricchia (US National Inline Team) and future Quinnipiac Division 1 forward Jeremy Langlois. Did we need a 6’ 4” converted goalie to Power Forward with interesting turning and transition skating skills?

I’m a firm believer that every team needs a ping pong table and an old school rudder to keep things loose and the team committed to the process. I guess my gut instinct was that Fitz could be our human ping pong table and was a throwback “Slap Shot” type character and he needed us. This was a guy who had won a National Championship with the Afton Americans U18 Major Midget Team as a goalie. This was guy who a year earlier snapped what was left of his collar bone in the gym doing a military press at a team lift after being hit yet again in the collar bone in practice an hour earlier. This is a guy who comes from a great family with a lot of moving parts and for ten years regretted the fateful decision that was made in ’97 that would see him strap the pillows on in Squirts and mentally battle that out for a decade.

Fitzy battled his way all season into the line up and would give me the stare whenever he did not dress for an occasional game and so did the rest of the team. The greatest team cheers of the season were for Fitzy when he scored at the WSHL showcase, or when he tackled any guy that messed with our skill guys or danced with Mike Zenzola’s stick from San Diego. He was revered both on and off the ice by his teammates. I‘ll never forget the smile on his face when he won a National Bronze Medal with us in 2008. It was like the dragon had been slayed once and for all.

It was a Monday in October 2009 and I received a text from my former Power Forward Fitz, “Hey Hoody, just thought you would like to know I was just named captain of my college team, I never lost that Polar Bear Mentality and I never will,” Polar Bear for life Sean



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