Oct 18, 2016 | Jay Nijhuis | 414 views
A Crazy Start to the Season for "The ATS Wild"
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Game Reporter: Jay Nijhuis
What an absolutely crazy start to a brand new season. The time passed so quickly from player evaluations to our first practice and games, that we as a coaching staff really haven't had much time to talk to parents.
Joe is the Head Coach, Jeff is the Assistant Coach and I am the Trainer/Assistant Coach. The three of us have been coaching together now for 4 seasons and our number one goal is to try and have every single player get better as the season progresses.
At this age we will be working on Defensive Zone Breakouts, Offensive zone attack strategies, teamwork and good sportsmanship. We take a lot of pride in the teams we have coached in the past, especially in the way they share the puck with each other, play hard, never give up and bond as friends in the dressing room and on the ice.
Nothing gets us more excited than seeing a player execute something during a game that we worked hard on the day before at practice and seeing big smiles from players lets us know that the boys are having fun and loving the game.
Our philosophy is pretty simple and straight forward, we as a team never step on the ice to lose and we let the boys know that, but, we will never criticize or get angry at the team if they give it their maximum effort and try their best. You'll probably hear us yelling a lot from the bench, it is never at a player...it is always too a player to shout encouragement or to give them a heads up if they don't see something on the ice.
This game is supposed to be fun above all else and too many players walk away from hockey because they are not having fun, our goal is to make coming to the rink fun and have the kids walk away from the season with a positive experience.
All 3 of us are very approachable and if you ever have any questions about your child please do not hesitate to approach us, we'd be happy to answer any questions.
Just a quick reminder to please bring $75.00 to the rink on Friday or Saturday this weekend to give to Joe for the names on the player jerseys and to register for the January 6-8, 2017 Tournament in London. He has paid for it already out of his pocket so it would be nice to get that money back to him asap.
We'll see you at the rink and here's to a great season...we are very excited about this team and what they could accomplish together.