End of Season Blues

I don't want to spook it, but theoretically a week from now, Colin's hockey season 2023/24 will be over. Except... If the guys upstairs come through.

Colin's team ended up second out of eight teams within our regional group, which means they qualify to attend the playoffs against the other regional team's top two teams, and, if they succeed, against the last team of the higher classified team.

The ultimate goal for any participating team is to be prompted to the higher league. However, for our team, this is out of the question for political reasons. For this reason, and because more games means more financial expenditures, the club's management is like "why bother". 

This was the case already last year. Rumor has it that the coach we had back then, said to the staff member who wanted to deny the boys the playoffs "if you're really serious, you'll join me into the locker room, and you tell the guys yourself." That did the trick.

This year we have a different coach, and different staff members, so it's impossible to speculate about the outcome. 

I can only hope they're gonna do the right thing. The boys deserve to get the chance to play. I don't think they will win anyway. 

See our top scorer is responsible for 71 goals and 22 assists. 

In order to assess these values correctly, the regular great players probably scored and assisted in about ten goals. 

So what's the problem? The reason why this top scorer even plays for our team, even though he's massively overqualified, is of medical nature. He was already selected to play for the future pro team, scholarship and all. The las hurdle was the doctor's visit, just a routine check. Turns out he has a heart defect! That young, athletic guy has some congenital cardiac problems he never knew about and was probably never gonna learn about. 

Except the medical team said they strongly advise against competitive sports, and if he absolutely had to keep playing hockey, then he needed to join a lower ranked category, where checks and hits are not allowed. That's how he ended up with us regular folks. It was so heartbreaking to hear about his fate. I had known the family for a long time because his younger twin brothers had already played with us. 

So during these playoff games, should our boys be allowed to play, the rules of the higher category will apply, i.e. checking is allowed. Meaning he won't be given the green light to participate. Meaning our guys will have to fend for themselves.

Stil though. Give them a chance! 

On a positive note, L has been back on the team for three months, and there hasn' been the slightest incident. Sadly he isn't back to his successful self either. I also hope for his sake that this year he can be part of the fun during the playoffs. 

So if you read this, please send positive vibes that make our management decide in our boys' favor! We wanna play!!!