Ice Time

Most kids decide that their favourite sport is something that they can play in the park whenever they want and all they need to practice is a ball of some sort.  Not me, that would be way too easy.  I had to find a favourite sport that involved going somewhere else to practice and train, somewhere cold and at crazy hours of the day.

I've just come home from Development Council in Oakleigh (that's ice hockey training for kids that want to join a PeeWee team).  I only started Council a couple of weeks ago and tonight I was evaluated.

The good news is… I am now ready to play PeeWee Hockey.
The bad news is… I have to get up really really early of a Saturday morning to get to training.

This first week, I will train with a team, then if the coach thinks I am ready, I can play in the team the following week.  So adding PeeWee to my training, let me tell you what a typical Saturday is going to be like.

I will have to get up crazy early, scoff some breakfast and head to the ice where I will spend most of the day.  First off I have training at Oakleigh that starts on the ice at either 6.30am or 7.45am, for peewee training.  Then I have to head in to Docklands for Development League at Icehouse where I have to be ready to jump onto the ice at 10.45am.  My favourite part of the day is what will happen next, the peewee match.  For the match, I will have to be at either Oakleigh or Icehouse by 12.30pm to get ready for the match at 1.15pm.  If the match is at Docklands I can hang around and have another skate with my friends just for fun.

Oh and as I am playing ice hockey all over the place, don't forget that Milla has her figure skating training.  She starts at 7.15am so on the days that I am at Oakleigh at 6.30am, she will have to catch a taxi in to Icehouse with dad!  She skates in classes till about 10.30am then just hangs out with her friends, skating about and having fun until we leave.

Now you would think that by now the day of ice hockey (and figure skating) madness would be done and we could go home and relax but it isn't, there is still heaps more to do.  Some days we (the Atoms - under 11 players) will get to do exhibitions games after the first period of the AIHL game at Icehouse, so that means we have to be getting ready at 4.30pm.  Then after the AIHL match, I have another training session and game at 7.15pm.  By the time that is finished and I peel of my sweaty stinky gear, it is after 8.30pm and I will have been skating around for what feels like a million hours and will feel like a zombie.  I am pretty sure that I will be more than ready to just fall into bed and sleep for a week but no doubt mum will insist that I have a shower first!

So there you have it - we can kiss our free time on Saturday's goodbye.  If you want to catch up with any of us, grab a jacket and head on down to the ice rink!

Love AJ Pickle