March 2
Nate's Team Lost
Monday, March 2, 2009 @ 8:12 pm by Josh Burcham
Nathan, my youngest brother, plays Bantam AA and his team is actually pretty good. Took the season in first place with only 11 loses in just shy of 70 games. Pretty impressive. I came up here to Colorado to watch him play and make it to regionals down in Phoenix. Well, it didn’t happen. Their team just couldn’t get it together. Here is a letter one of the fathers sent out after the game. It was too good to not post:
Jaguars,
You won’t believe the nightmare I had last night. I dreamed that we were in the semi-finals of the state championships and the boys looked like they were playing in the ice instead of on the ice. They could barely move their feet in the frozen water, and the pucks kept wafting by their sticks, like tiny, intangible clouds driven by irregular, shifting puffs of wind. They were confused and disorganized—like the stock market. To make matters worse, three angry-looking harpies wearing striped black and white shirts kept hooking our boys with their razor-sharp talons and tossing them into the penalty box. Pretty soon, there wasn’t any more room for me. I could barely move, barely breathe. And here’s the weirdest part: We were losing to Arapahoe, one of the sloppiest teams in the league and four-time losers to the Jaguars. It was mysterious, bizarre and terrifying, and I woke up drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Thank God it was only a drea……
Hold on a second folks, Kerry’s talking. What’s that, honey? I wasn’t dreaming? Are you effin’ kidding me? That was reality? Sweet Mother of God, I need to up my medication post-haste and schedule a session with my counselor, Glen Livet, right away!
Take a deep breath. Calm down. Stop sobbing. Get a hold of yourself, Mike.
OK. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you’d hoped. Sometimes the underdog wins. Sometimes the sure thing falls through. That’s sports. In fact, it’s the highs and the lows—the very uncertainty of the outcome of things—that makes sports so exciting, so flat-out addicting.
I loved this season. We played 60 games, winning 46, losing 11 and tying three. It’s the best season most of us have ever had. In many cases, it’s one of the few winning seasons we’ve had, and I’m truly grateful for it. Jamie taught these boys how to beat some of the top Bantam AA teams in the U.S. Hell, he coached them to victory over some of the top Bantam AAA teams in the U.S. We won the International Silver Stick Tournament, setting Canada’s number one and number two Bantam AA teams on their heads in the process. And we did it with a rag-tag team cobbled together from everywhere; the Canadians literally had several hundred kids try out for each of their teams. Yes, they are that good. But we are the first team from Colorado to win that tournament, and one of the few American teams to ever do it at any level in the 47-year history of the tournament. Our name is posted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada next to the case containing the original Silver Stick trophy. How many bantams can say that?
But you know what was best of all about this season? It was watching the boys learning how to adapt to unfamiliar systems. Or, in many cases, it was seeing them learn how to play with complete strangers in positions they’ve never played before: Lance became a defenseman; Gabe, a utility player; Kyle a roller hockey player-cum-ice hockey player, and so on. It was seeing them being given jobs to do and then doing them, not always happily, but willingly and with focus and effort, like the young adults they are rapidly becoming. These boys were developed and, win or lose, isn’t that what we were in it for? I think so.
There’s much more, of course. We fought through adversity, we fought through injuries. Remember when Austin broke his collar bone and separated his shoulder and had to be carried off the ice on a stretcher? Or when Blake sacrificed his kneecap to a slap shot and was forced to miss the Silver Stick finals? And how about George, who often battled against players almost twice his size, and in the process suffered two separated shoulders, a broken wrist and torn rib cartilage? He never quit, and you never caught him complaining. We have some tough kids on this team, but is there anybody tougher than him? I doubt it. He’s a great kid, and he exemplified this team’s tenacity. Talk about a champion.
I especially loved hanging out with all of you parents. You are the best parents we’ve ever been affiliated with—except for two of you (I think the rest of you know who I’m talking about). J You put up with my bullshit with grace and style and patience, and I love you all. Thank you one and all for a tremendous season. I don’t expect to have it any better ever again.
XXXX XXXXXXX
There is nothing like team sports. I am extremely greatful for getting the opporunity to play hockey with a great bunch of guys over the years. Letters like this just bring me back. There is nothing like a team.
