May 25/13

Picking up where I left off last night, this afternoon I napped.  I never nap.  This just goes to show how wiped out I was after this week.  But that's not what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about 13 year olds, decision-making, and Don Cherry.

I try to stay away from Coach's Corner because I'm recognizing that Don Cherry's just becoming a nuisance.  He still knows the goods when it comes to hockey, but his editorials over the last five years or so have been borderline.

Tonight, it was just dumb. 

Earlier today, Hockey Canada voted to ban checking at the peewee level.  By and large, this is believed to be a positive move, though the old Dinosaur doesn't think so, and he resorted to a pretty weak argument about these kids playing with other kids who do hit.  The thing is, in Alberta, they just instituted the ban, and there is no evidence of more injuries because the 14 year olds know how to hit and the 13 year olds don't.  The people who are loudest in fighting the bans are the goons and the uber-competitive parents who want their kids to win at all costs. 

But by far, Don's dumbest comment on this came as Coach's Corner was wrapping up:

“I’ve talked to coaches [who coach 13-year-olds] and they tell the kids, ‘you can hit now.’ And the kids say ‘we can hit now!?’, and they’re wild. They can hardly wait.”

Sure, that's probably the case that the kids go "wild"...but I think back to when I was 13, when my peers were 13, when my cousins were 13, when my niece and nephew were 13...at 13, we were not the best decision-makers.  We did shit that we thought was so cool without thinking of how stupid or dangerous it was.  We did not think about the consequences.  I went to a sleepaway summer camp as a 10 year old, and on the final night there, some of the older kids started a water balloon fight.  It was all harmless and good fun, but one of the older boys escalated it, and it resulted in another boy kicking in a door on the troublemaker, catching him in the head.  He ended up with a significant concussion, and we were all freaked out.

I realize it's been a long time since Don Cherry was 13, but I would hazard a guess that even he would look back on his 13 year old self and think "Christ, that was a dumb thing to do." about a few things.

At 13, these kids are still growing, so let's let them do so without increasing their risk of preventable injury.  They will have plenty of time for those cool-but-stupid decisions later on...trust me.

An ounce of prevention (and common sense)...

...Wish you were here.