Xavier has hockey almost every day right now, and it was nice to see the parents from hockey. Over the last couple of years when Xavier was playing with the team they were super supportive of him and he has developed and grown a lot playing with them. A lot of the parents came to chat with me to see how I was as they had found out about my cancer and me not bringing Xavier at the beginning of this year. I am not sure if they will all be on the same team this year but the parents that I have interacted with have been fantastic and have offered to bring Xavier when required.
Melanie is going to have a difficult time as a goalie mom. When she went to watch him play in the past he did not play well for some reason of she was so critical of him. Talking to the other hockey parents they would say that he played well but Melanie would be annoyed because at times it seems like he is not paying attention or trying. At practice he does not always try and it is really evident since he does not move much and seems to flinch when the puck is fired. When he tries he is very aggressive and will move and cover up most of the net. It is primarily him conserving energy or not caring. Right now it is a huge mix of kids as it is conditioning, so the skill range of the kids is rather large. The kids that he knows from the previous couple of years he tends to try much harder on the ice. The issue is that in some drills some kids are slow so he ends up getting two shots at once from both sides so he has to try and figure out which side to go to and then reset and get ready for the third shooter that comes. In these instances he does the bare minimum to make the save for all 3 shooters. He loves when they do penalty shots or drills that mimic game situations though and he tries much harder for that. I told him he needs to start trying much harder as these are tryouts and if he keeps on giving less than 100% effort he is going to get cut. My parents were like Mel and they would ask me after games why I did not stop everything, even when I carried the team to a win. I think Melanie is going to be like that. She is going to be stressed out when he has the players have a breakaway on him. Last year he was stellar in those situations and he stopped all the penalty shots he had on him. I do not anticipate him doing that this year as I do not think his team is going to be as strong as the last two years. Every goal she is going to ask why he did not stop that.
I have a fantastic support system in Sudbury with family and friends and even though I do not talk to my friends frequently. Melanie is the one that normally tells me I should call or talk to my friends. I have been lucky that I have maintained my friendships with people throughout all of my career and that they have all helped me out in some way in the last year.