I was one of the many players who started frantically searching for a travel hockey team on June 25th. My mom, my dad and I were going to rink after rink all weekend. Sunday we were even up at 4:30am to make an early tryout in Artesia! We would drive from one rink to the next, and just sit there and relax in the car when we had time between tryouts. This was the most boring part of the series of tryouts. Even though sometimes those breaks did actually help. They helped when I was tired from tryouts and wanted just to relax which, was often.

In between tryouts I would sometimes go in hallways at the rinks and shoot a ball into the air. This seemed to be the only thing that I was able to do for a little break from the tryout stress. The sad thing was, it got pretty boring shooting a ball into the air repeatedly. Even though it was enjoyable to begin with it could have been better. Plus, when kids joined me I got mad at them for not listening or for making it competitive when competitive was exactly what I was trying to get away from.

For some reason tryouts felt as if I was trying out for the same team over and over again and again. The same drills, followed by some scrimmage time, repeat, repeat, repeat. Even though the tryouts were repetitive I decided to still try my hardest. Eventually this made time go by faster. I was happy after every tryout, whether I made the team or not, because it was done.

I tried out for the Beach City Lightning and turns out I was the only one there except for the coach because the first tryout was invite only and never posted on their website. One of the great side effects of being the only one there, the coach let me skate on the ice all by myself for a few laps. An entire sheet of ice all to yourself is something only pros usually get to do, it was fun. I did some one on ones with the coach and power skating and other simple stuff but he also taught me new things. After the tryout he said he wanted me on the team but he had to find enough players. Beach City held another tryout a couple days later. I knew every kid that tried out, either from other tryouts of from my old tournament team.

After the tryout, as we left the ice, we were handed letters explaining whether we had made the team, been cut or asked to tryout again. We then went back in the locker room and read my letter. I am now a member of the Beach City Lightning PeeWee B team. The next day I was still so very, very happy. That day seemed to be one of the happiest days of my life.

Tryouts are not really done. We still have to finish filling out our roster and the coach likes me to be there for that. But for me the stress is over… Until the season starts.