Shot Down

Preface to Shot Down

This is a story about being put in your place. This is a story about being shotdown in front of your peers.

This is a story that I’ve carried with me for a long long time.

Shot Down

Being shot down or put in your place in front of your peers isn’t always the easiest to handle or accept, but it might be the best lesson someone can teach you depending how you take it, learn from it and move forward.

We have been taking two cars to the cottage lately because we haven’t adjusted yet to not having the cargo space that the van used to have plus I’ve been going back and fourth a lot lately. The transmission went again in the van in April so that f&$ked up a lot of things. The girls and the dogs love the new vehicle so there’s a lot to think about on my solo two hour trip. I don’t know if it was the solitude of Route 126 or the fact that I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on my path within the game, but this memory and story appeared out of no where.

If I’ve learned anything in the past 12 years or so since I started to write, when things appear out of no where, it’s something you write about.

There’s always a back story and I don’t want to get into too much detail, but when I was coaching back in the day I always tried to coach in the selection process for the Chowder Cup.

During that time I was just starting out in the coaching game and didn’t have a shit ton of confidence due in large part to the fact that there wasn’t too much winning at MHS at the time.

I thought a true measure and value of a coach at the time was the win/loss column, so I coached in the summer to challenge myself and also to use that as a measuring stick to see if I could actually coach.

My involvement over the years in the Chowder Cup both on the Women’s and Men’s Division is what led to the encounter and subsequent story.

For some reason I wasn’t coaching a team that summer, but was asked to come in and provide some assessment as far as the selection process was concerned. I didn’t hesitate at that opportunity and a matter of fact was incredibly intrigued at the scouting and selection process even back then. So I breezed in on Day 2 of the event watching two or three games and quickly jotted down my roster. When the games were over I headed into the coaches room to debrief with the other coaches, some of which I had worked with in the past and got to know on a personal level. After a while the GM of the team came into the room and began the conversation, I was quiet at first as they started to discuss players and potential roster positions, but I was quick to interject with my thoughts and opinions.

The GM let me go on for a bit and promptly shot me down in front of the entire group. I can’t remember his exact words, but it wasn’t the most pleasant, but it was along the lines of, “you can’t come in here and watch just a few games and have the entire team picked already that’s absurd.”

I was quickly shot down by a person I deeply respected and admired. In the moment I was quite hurt by his comments especially in front of everyone else. The meeting ended and the coaches spilled out of the room. Some of us mingled around the rink for awhile and then made our way out. I’ll never forget another coach walking out with me that night.

“Hey man, you were right about a lot of those kids, he wasn’t right saying that about in front of the group, I felt bad for you,” he said.

“Oh, it’s alright, I said, I thought I had a good handle on things, but you know something, he’s right by saying that, I was only here today and there’s a couple days left.”

The twists and turns of the old 126 brought back that memory back to life for me the other day.

Being shot down like that really hurt, but it was such a value lesson. You can’t just blow into the rink watch a few games and identify the flash and dash players and create a roster, things take time and to make a valid assessment of a player you have to see the entire body of work, the details, the intangibles over a certain period of time.

The GM words and actions that day hurt, but they had an impact on me and subsequently my path and mindset within the game, the selection process and inevitably the scout process as well.

I should have never shot my mouth off like that. I should have never provided my reports and outlined the final roster like that. It wasn’t my place to say anything other than provide my insight on a few players.

Any Tom, Dick or Harry can walk into a rink and spout off about their knowledge and provide their thoughts and insights on players or create a team roster for that matter, but their depth of knowledge on the player, the game and the rationale behind their decisions is what matters most.

The GM that day wasn’t going to let me spout off, he wanted me to see the entire process before making my final conclusions and assessments especially publicly in front of others in the hockey world.

Evaluating and projecting players isn’t easy and you have to have an element of patience, expertise, quiet confidence and experience.

I’ll never forget being shotdown like that and I’ll never forget that supportive walk out of the rink towards the parking lot that night.

That night taught me a lot about the game, the selection and scouting process, but first and foremost it taught me a lot about myself and just how far I needed to go.

Sometimes on the road of life you find people that put you in your place because they see the potential in you, so you can see the potential in others.