[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by habernac

So happy evaluations are over. I had a roller coaster of emotions this weekend.

My son is not an elite player. He does everything ok, but he doesn't have any one skill that is exceptional. Despite this, he's either first or second every year on his team for scoring.

It's his first year in peewee. There's a ton of great skaters now. He doesn't stand out. But I know if they put him on the lowest teams he's not going to grow as a player.

We have 4 levels for evaluations. A through D. D are the players who are still learning to skate, etc. He gets stuck in D. Again. I'm beyond frustrated.

Lucky for me, the kid takes it like a champ. He puts out a great effort at the next skate and gets put into the C group. We have another skate. He starts out slowly, but gets comfortable and finishes well. I'm pretty certain he's done enough to stay in C.

11:30pm Saturday night we still haven't got the email for when he skates on Sunday. I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to check. They've bumped him down to D again.

I stay up the remainder of the night trying to figure out how I'm going to tell him. I got three hours of sleep at most.

Breakfast time, he gets up. I tell him. "Why am I back in D, Dad?" I had no explanation. "It's ok, Dad. I'll show them what I have tonight."

I'm so proud of how he handled the adversity. He went out and was the best player on the ice. Assisted one, scored two more. I don't know what team he will end up on yet, but I know I can count on my kid to make the best of the situation.

I always like to remind kids that be playing organized hockey, at any level, they are already part of a very small & lucky minority in this city/province/country.

Good on your son. That approach will treat him well in life.

This was our first year in a big associations (13 PeeWee teams, WTF).

My son just changed from 4 years of playing goal to a player. He hadn't skated all summer, went to the first skate after his first day of school in a "new" city. He was pretty emotional and pooped the bed, landed in group 13. He worked his way back up to group 8 and that is where he stopped, and to be honest is about right for him.

I honestly always try to be calm during evaluations/try outs.

At the end of the day it is kids just paying a sport they like.

I hope your boy has a fun and enjoyable season Habernac.