It’s the best! It’s why I keep doing this, little moments like that!

The parents were blown away. They all expected the kids to get blown out. Instead, they got to see their kids get to within a bounce of going to states. Amazing to see the improvement happen in front of your eyes and know that all the hours we put in with these kids has led to this.

But we had these kids so prepared, they played their butts off. We tied the higher ranked team 2-2 thru regulation, played through a scoreless OT and then ultimately lost in a 6 round shootout. Again, this game has historically NEVER been close. We almost pulled it off. Told the kids how proud I was

Then we had a state playdown game later that night. Because our program is big, 2 of the peewee teams must play each other to see which of them advances to districts. The other peewee team is higher ranked than mine, with the more talented kids as a whole. Usually, the intra-program game isn’t close

Hoping to get there myself soon

Oh, and they pick up whatever your share of the bill is at the team dinners, too. It’s a pretty sweet setup 😂