Growing Old in the Cold: An Observation On a Boys Squirt Hockey Practice

I. Preface (Leighton):

Growing up in a hockey arena has made an inevitable impact on my life. As a child, I learned discipline and commitment from it. It was something that I hated with my whole heart and slowly I learned to love. Hockey is a sport that in order to become good, it takes years upon years and lots of work. Similar to most of the older hockey players in Buffalo, when I enter the Buffalo Civic Center, I automatically recognize almost all of the adults and the people who work there. Spending so much time at one place brings everyone closer together. It’s like a family. Everyone cares for each other.

There is a significant difference between the boys’ hockey program and the girls’ program though. These differences are evident in the ways that boys act towards the game, the way that they are coached, and their different personality towards hockey. Girls and boys are very different and that is inevitable. While observing the Squirt Development Camp, I expect that the practice will be much more aggressive than a female practice and the lines that the boys will form will be relative to their individual skills. I also expect that at the end of the practice, they will play some sort of competitive games.



I. Preface (Jillianne):

When I was younger I would view the sport of hockey as a functional opportunity to get away, and enrich my mind and skills. To this day it plays a big role on my everyday life and I have never strayed away from the idea that it is enriching and developing. The Buffalo Hockey Association is a place where everything is an organized, everyone is familiar with one another and with everything, and everybody shares one common interest, hockey.

As you are at the younger levels, the association is co-ed, the years the genders split, are the key stages in a childs hockey career. I have partaken in the girls program, and I barely had enough time to keep up with my own team, let alone watching the boys. Here and there our practices will share ice time, but the halves divide along with the teams. There is an obvious reason why the genders split, and that is because of the vast amount of difference.

As for the differences, I assume that before the drills/ individual warmups and such, I think knowing boys, they know the abilities that they are most confident in and they will try and show what they can do off. Which means the ones that can skate the fastest will spend most of time skating, and for the boys that have a good shot will sit at the net and keep shooting. The boys that are playing the game for fun will be socializing. I think the superior players and the players with most potential will definitely show. At this young age of developing skills for the future, the kids are more focused on what they can do to make them individually better, not a team. So I believe that in small games or scrimmaging when a kid gets an opportunity to have the puck, he will use it and not think about passing it and letting someone else have a chance.



II. Background Information:

The Buffalo Civic Center has two ice sheets. One of the arenas is referred to as the “new” rink. This ice sheet is the most renovated rink the center has. The new rink was added on to the original complex which is referred as the “Peterson rink”, or the old rink.

Most hockey players, ameliorate themselves, by following a certain path of levels in the hockey association. The first level is called Mini-mites. In mini-mites, you stay local by only playing in your city. It is meant for kids age 7 and under. Mites, is very similar to Mini-mites, but it is designed for kids that are 9 years old or younger. Traveling hockey begins after Mites when you reach either Squirts, if you are a boy, or U10’s if you are a girl. Skaters are at this level for two seasons. For most people, their Squirt and U10 season occurs while they are 9, and 10. After this, the boys move on to Peewees and the girls will advance to U12’s. Alike the other years, players stay at this level for two years. During the seasons when they are 13 and 14, boys will play bantams, and girls will move on to play U14 hockey until they are 15. Some, choose to play High School Hockey when they reach the U14 level depending on their preference.



III. Observations:

When we first walked into our local Buffalo hockey arena, we were immediately surrounded by cool air. We made our way up the bleachers of the new arena, to the top of the stands and into the observing bench. The players had just gotten on the ice, and were coming on the ice one by one. They were doing individual warm-ups. We first noticed that a few of the players have a different colored hockey socks then most. Two players had red socks, and one player had blue. We presumed that this meant that these players may have partaken in an out of season team prior to this practice. We then noticed a girl in this squirt practice, which was very unusual. She was skating around by herself, and we noted her as the ‘Lonely Girl.’ Everyone else on the ice were males, including the coaches,

During the individual warm ups, the net would slowly fill up with pucks from the players shooting the. When there were no more pucks left to shoot, the players would go into the net and grab a puck just for themselves, even though they are already in the net and could easily take out the rest. We presumed that the players only worry about benefiting themselves as a player.

There were five coaches on the ice. One coach blew the whistle and all of the kids gathered around him. He was bearded, and held a clipboard so we assumed he was the head coach, and we called him the bearded coach. The bearded coach was making hand motions and drawing on a white board, and then motioned for the kids to line up against the wall. Once all the kids were in their places, the bearded coach blew his whistle and the kids started their first drill.

The first players started to skate, and then we heard someone yelling. We noticed that a coach in a grey hood was already yelling at the kids to “GO!” we labeled this coach as the ‘yeller coach.’ Looking at the players lined up on the board a few of them were talking to one another, and the lonely girl budged someone in line. Lonely girl found a friend now, and she keeps talking to him smiling, and laughing. When the boy she was talking to closes the conversation she stands back a few steps and stares at him. When she was backing up she tripped and fell, a sure sign of a 10 year-old crush. It is now the lonely girls turn to start the drill and she doesn’t know what to do. She then has to restart the drill, which is one of many side effects of a crush.

After this drill that took up the entire ice, the bearded coach blew the whistle and everyone met in the middle. He called off names and everyone he called off went in a separate spot on the ice. Each of the four stations did different drills and had different coaches. When the players reached the yeller coach’s station, their body language was much different than it was at any other station. The kids at this station began to mess around and show a disinterest in the drill they were taking part in. Yeller coach continued to yell as the skaters went through the drill. At all of the other stations, the boys were attentive. We then concluded that the players had a lack of interest in the coach, rather than the drills.

While observing, we noticed that while the players were waiting in line for a drill, most of their focus was spent on messing around. Many kids were tripping each other, throwing punches, and just conversing. We made the assumption that because these players are only 10 years old, that this behavior was their way of having fun during a hard practice.

At the end of the practice, the players took their jerseys off, and met in a huddle to do a cheer. We assumed that the cheer brought unity to their team. Once the cheer was over, coaches and players stayed on the ice to pick up pucks, and move the nets. When the zamboni backed out onto the ice, both the players, and the coaches got off of the ice.

IV. Conclusion:


Watching a squirt practice, brings out very many differences between a normal girls’ hockey practice and the average boys’ hockey practice. Most girls at age 10 would not be doing particular things that the boys took part in. Our practices were run from one end of the ice during a skills clinic rather than using the entire ice during the whole practice. Boys actions during their practice were much more aggressive and competitive than any practice that the two of us have taken part in.

The Squirt players all proved to us that they are still deficient in their listening skills, and their attention spans. The players cared about the drills that they were about to attempt, but waiting in line patiently, posed to be a problem. There inability to pay attention while waiting, was something that we looked past when we were making preconceptions. We assumed that it would not be a problem. Even though the players were corrupt to each other during their practice, they all left as one team.

Buffalo Hockey Association has allowed for everyone who is a part of the association, big or small, to be brought together over the common bond of hockey. No matter who can be seen in the Buffalo arena, there are always people there that genuinely care for the sport.