Passion and Sportsmanship

After a rough,

Tough,

And rewarding hockey season,

The boys attended the Awards Banquet. The club consists of over 20 teams, team awards are not given out during the banquet, instead given out separately with your team. After awards were given out, David said to me, "My coach did a good job picking the team awards, he picked really good people for each award.", even though he himself did not recieve anything.

David's passion for the sport shows through. He loves being part of a hockey team, and his teammates are an extension of himself. He was as happy for his teammates awards as he would be for himself. I, however, saw David's hard work, good attitude and passion for the sport never waiver over the 6 month long season. I will admit, I was a little bummed that he didn't get a team award. David helped me to appreciate the choices his coach made for awards and we went on with our evening.

Knowing that David and Greg were not getting one of the 4 club awards, I felt safe to leave the banquet and rush to Shawn's basketball game. I was letting the boys finish dessert as someone tapped me on the shoulder....I looked up and there is David's photo, one of four nominees in his age group up for the "Robert L. Falk" sportsmanship award,

David's picture is the far right....Then David was named the winner of the award! He went up to receive the award...completely surprised by it.

The other nominees are from other teams and I don't really know them, but I am sure they were well deserving of the award, but I can say that David was a great choice. (His mother on the other hand, probably has some work to do before she would win a sportsmanship award).

David has a great attitude about hockey, and his teammates on and off the ice. I will spare you the nomination letter from his coach, but David really has been a great sportsman throughout the long, difficult and exciting hockey season.
Hockey is not the sport I would choose for my kids. Like football, I love to watch hockey, but didn't really wants kids who played it. When it comes to David, I do not have a choice in the matter. It is his first love, he eats, sleeps and breathes the sport and would never stop playing if he could. The season starts in august and ends in March, he and Greg are still on the ice two times a week even now. They will take off 2 months and be back to it in August. For David, even that is not enough. He is passionate about it. His passion makes him work hard, think of his team first, never complain about the long, grueling practices and his passion for hockey helps him accept the ups and the downs. Thats what makes him a good sport.

For me, my passion is my family. Watching little successes in their lives is amazing. As much as I hate the cold, I feel it a blessing to sit in an ice rink when it is 80 degrees outside and watch my children get so much pleasure from playing hockey. My passion for my family helps me to accept the ups and the downs, it helps me to work hard, and think of them first. For me, everyday is not enough, I never want to stop being a mom, a wife, a cleaning lady, a taxi driver and all the other various things. I love it passionately.