Who has boy/boys in hockey?

[MPS]

My son is almost 9 and is a 1st year squirt. He is getting pretty damn good. This sport is getting almost as expensive as sledding! However I enjoy seeing my son improve daily...I love to see him score a goal. I love to see him out skate a kid and beat him to the puck. He is going out for the travel team this year...that is gonna put a dent in the pocket book...but maybe we could make all the trips into hockey/sledding trips. We have Jackson Hole, Salmon, and Sun Valley on the schedule. Might as well get all the bang for the buck eh? I am sure I will get lots of reponses from the Canucks, Minnesotans, Wisconsins, etc! Robbie Glantz just came to teach power skating...the guy sure knows what he is doing and keeps the kids focused and active. Cheapest camp I have paid for and by far the best my son has been too...he is an improved skater in just 3 days.

 

[skid]

My 9 year old daughter plays on the u12 girls team. My boy plays on the mites. I love watching them skate and even help coach their teams. It does get expensive, plus it requires a large time commitment. I am at the arena every day. My sled racing is going to suffer this year.

 

[maluchm]

I grew up playing AA and AAA travel hockey and even back then it was a big hit on my parents pocket book but we have no regrets and tons of great memories. Many trips on long weekends and good family times together! If you can somehow combine the two like you mentioned I'd say go for it but it may be harder to do both then one might initially think.

 

[906th_Airborne]

I have been in our hockey association since the time I was three years old. Love the sport to death. At a point over the last two seasons I was lucky enough to drag a college coach along to watch me and one of my buddies play, even got told we could probably play for Finlandia (Div. 3 team). Unfortunatley they weren't willing to give either of us the re-worded scholarships that I know they give (as d3 teams cant give athletic scholarships) and being a private type school it would have ended up putting us wayyyyy in the hole.

As it was back then we had 3 kids in our family, all on three different teams. It puts a hurt on your pockets but its worth it. My little brother will be taking the highschool path after this season, the kid is an animal on defense being 5'10, 185lbs in eighth grade, he's not afraid to lay a body on anyone and his shot is a freakin rocket, not bad in accuracy either. My littlest brother isn't a physical player due to size but last year he could dangle around some of the kids on the midget team, and he's gonna be a second year peewee this year and already my dad has been getting calls from the highschool coach that we end up with making sure that he is going to play highschool over Midgets when he gets there.

Hockey is the one thing I would play over sledding. It is my heart and soul. Incredible sport to get involved with.

You can ride sleds for many many years to come, but you don't get to enjoy the thrill of playing/watching your kids/brothers/sisters/etc. for very long. It is worth the money.

 

[Dogmeat]

My son is almost 9 and is a 1st year squirt. He is getting pretty damn good. This sport is getting almost as expensive as sledding! However I enjoy seeing my son improve daily...I love to see him score a goal. I love to see him out skate a kid and beat him to the puck. He is going out for the travel team this year...that is gonna put a dent in the pocket book...but maybe we could make all the trips into hockey/sledding trips. We have Jackson Hole, Salmon, and Sun Valley on the schedule. Might as well get all the bang for the buck eh? I am sure I will get lots of reponses from the Canucks, Minnesotans, Wisconsins, etc! Robbie Glantz just came to teach power skating...the guy sure knows what he is doing and keeps the kids focused and active. Cheapest camp I have paid for and by far the best my son has been too...he is an improved skater in just 3 days.

Hockey is far and away the most expensive sport a kid can play. I played from the time I was 6 until I was 15, then my parents finally told me they didn't want me missing that much school and weren't shelling out the thousands of dollars it was gonna take to travel (family couldn't afford it at the time even if they wanted to) ... so I just played basketball from that point on. Pretty cheap sport but nowhere anywhere near as fun ... I played on the "travel team" every year I played too, from mite to bantam.

For what it's worth, I grew up in Casper, WY .... there weren't near as many cities in Wyoming that had teams back then.... so we pretty much had two days of "town team" which was one practice and one game a week, then practice for the travel team on Sundays. If you live in a more populated state or area you might not have to travel as much.

I honestly wouldn't expect to make many hockey/sledding trips. You won't have time to go sledding in between games, and some tournaments we went and played we were literally waking up at 5:00am for a 6:00am game. Boy those were fun

I don't think there is really any way around the expense of hockey, especially if you live in a place where there are only a few rinks in the surrounding area, etc ... I mean hell we even went to Flagstaff Arizona when I was 13 once for a peewee tournament

I think it's just up to you as a parent to decide if it's worth it or not. You can have your kid carpool with other kids, we did that a lot, but it's still expensive...

Might have to ask your kid to make a choice, play hockey or find a cheaper sport and still be able to afford to sled ...

edit: I will admit however ... I wish like _HELL_ I would have played hockey in highschool over basketball. I wish I'd never stopped skating.

I picked it back up 2 years after I graduated highschool, went without it for 3 years (sucked), played on Texas Tech's club team a year, too expensive while going to school, so just played rec league for the rest of college, then didn't get to skate at all last year. In fact I just called the local rink today to find out what I had to do to register to play men's league here in Vernal to day

I will say however, every couple of years I pull out some of my parents old home videos they took of us over the years when we got invited to the Pike's Peak Invitational tournament in Colorado Springs, CO ... biggest hockey tournment in the western US if I remember right .... It was pretty cool to be that young and be in the opening ceremonial parade with like 100+ teams and 1000 or so players, totally filled the Broadmore ice area ... it was cool as ****

There is no other sport like hockey ...

Ya know, truth be told .... our sledding suffered from hockey too ...

We had two sleds growing up, two yammi's ... but after I started skating, the sleds broke, and we really never got em fixed .... parents always said we couldn't afford it ... but I was playin hockey the whole time, so yeah, it's an expensive sport, but I guess looking back on it, I wouldn't have traded it for sledding ... even as much fun as I used to have sledding as a kid. heh

 

[MACH]

I have been on skates since I was 3. My dad coached every year for A and B Midgets which I believe now is JV. I would always skate with the team, and have a blast. I started in mini mites and had to quit in high school because of knee injuries that kept me from playing.

Now I play on a couple of bar leagues around town once in a while if they need an extra guy.

And I also am the assistant coach of 2 teams. Both helping my uncles who my dad coached that are now coaching there kids. This weekend I get to try and lace them up if i can get a skate on my one foot as I have a leg infection I am fighting off.

My 4 year old cousin is starting hockey clinic this year and they needed someone with a coach’s card to help out so I get to go have fun with those guys.

I personally think yes equipment has gotten WAAAY expensive, but hey people are willing to pay for the stuff so whatever. I see kids showing up with composite sticks and the best of everything in mites and I wonder why? They are just going to grow out of most of it in a year anyways. The high end equipment doesn't make them any better. Skates are the only thing I can see spending money on but not going over the top. It is key to have good ankle support especially in young kids because there ankles aren't as strong as an older kids.

But just remember the kids love the sport and it is better then watching them play fricken soccer or something right?

 

[f3600]

Hey Mach,

I'm from FL too, and my 4 year old wants to try/start skating. I've looked on the hockey assn. webpage but haven't seen anything on mite/kid clinics.

Is this for kids already skating or a basic just starting deal?

Also played hockey from 6-18 but for NB and PC. One year on FL peewee inhouse.

Any info appreciated.

Thanks
F3600

 

[JDKZRT]

Hockey is far and away the most expensive sport a kid can play.

You haven't had to buy a figure skating costume (or pay for fig. skating lessons) lately... have ya?

 

[Dogmeat]

You haven't had to buy a figure skating costume (or pay for fig. skating lessons) lately... have ya?

I knew several sisters of fellow team mates over the years ... the skates were generally more expensive, I think most of them were wearing custom-fit skates that were in the neighborhood of $600. I have heard the costumes were more than that ..

But, by the same token, even in the mid 90's I had $250 skates and at minimum $1,000 worth of other gear ... I had all the Bauer Flak stuff, the kevlar-plated pads with air bags.....Probably overkill for bantam-level play but I was a defenseman so if I got hit with a puck I didn't want it to hit bare skin

I don't know, figure skating is definatley not cheap but I don't know if it's really an awful lot more expensive than hockey is, is it?

 

[go high fast]

boy plays peewee travel A hockey. daughter in 8th grade plays U19 girls travel hockey with me as assistant coach.

175,000 miles on car. 2 plane trips last year to Minot ND. This year it looks like Calgary, Salt Lake, Rapid City SD possibly twice, Minot possibly twice. Fly or drive yet havent decided.

last year I didnt get out on the sled until 3rd week in March....probably the same again this year.

Wouldn't trade one moment of these times for all the sledding in the world.

 

[MPS]

Wow I enjoyed reading all your responses! Yes it has definitely hit the pocket book, but yes it is worth it and yes I would rather watch my son play than sled. My boy was amazing last night. He turned it on! He scored 2 goals and was amazing fighting for that puck. I have to hold back the tears when I see him play his heart out and he comes to me and says, "daddy did you see me, did you see me?" I have tried to instill in him to never give up and fight as hard as he can until the end....he is doing that and he looks at me to see my proud face and cheers while he plays.

I hear ya about the travel...sucks, wish we could have more options at home. I remember my brothers going to Dallas for hell sake when they were no older than 12. Idaho Falls to Dallas....WTH?

I am only a poor government worker, my dad told me he would help with the travel team...I couldn't do it without him. My boy is a first year Squirt. He started a week and a half ago and seeing him improve dramatically in that time is awesome! Yes it is so time consuming...yesterday they had a 3 on 3 tournament after their camp. He had to go to the rink four times that day for the games. But seeing him play is worth it...I never knew watching my son play brings me so much more enjoyment than I ever had playing sports as a kid.

I am missing him tryout for the travel team right now. I left with my dad to hunt pheasant in SD for a week, but cant wait to get back and see him play.