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24-The Canadian Champion, Tuesday, May 21, 2002 Rep hockey tryouts can (e trvine timo for vmnths i's the time o ycar when hockey play- ers suffer a lot ol pain and anguish. i'm not talking about teains getting knocked out of the playoffs in the NHL, I'm talking about rep hockey tryouts. They can be traumatic for kids, but they're mostly traumatic for their parents. We hate to see our kids disappointed, and we have that unique ability to see some- thing in our kids that coaches somehow can't. At the recent OHL draft a kid got draft- ed that i helped get on a AAA team years ago. I had been asked by the coach to help evaluate players at the team's tryout, and something about him caught my attention. He was kind of small for a defenseman, but was an excellent skater, and did a lot of littie things right that told me he had a lot of hockey sense that would make him improve more than could be normally expected. i suggested they keep him, but i was the only one of that opinion. None of the other evaluators thought he should make it, but i was pretty insistent that this kid was a player. As it turned out, he was, but the chances are pretty good that he wouldn't have been had he not made that team and had AAA experience. That's how thin the line can be between making a team and not making a team, just one person's opinion. We sat in the room and went over all the players. Some were quickly dis- missed while others were debated. Eventually, the coach made the final decisions, but it wasn't easy. Attitudes of the players were a deciding factor in some cases, and the attitudes of the par- ents were a major factor. Coaches have it hard enough without disruptive influ- ences that don't need to be there. Most of the time the players themselves know whether they should have made the team. They get a good sense of it when they're on the ice. But sometimes coach- es are just wrong, or didn't see the player properly. I've told this story before, but when I was minor midget age in Toronto, I tried out for the local rep team and got cut. I had missed one of the tryouts and thought the coach had made a mistake, so1 tried out for the midget team in the same organization and made it as the only underager. The next year, when the minor midget team moved up, I made it again, but one player of note didn't. The coach, howev- er, told him he could come to practice, and play if somebody was injured or couldn't make a game. This guy worked harder than anybody Out in leftfield with MURRAY TOWNSENDI in practice, and it wasn't long before the coach was putting him in the lineup and sitting out other players on a rotation basis, including myself. He went on to become one of the leading scorers in Tier Il Junior A, and played professionally in Europe. Oddly enough, our third goalie, an underager who was in the same situa- tion as the other player, ended up playing Junior hockey. Even odder, those two players were brothers. Kelly Hrudey, who's now with Hockey Night in Canada and had a long career in the NHL. tells a similar story about him- self. He kept getting cut, right up to midget age, when he finally figured his hockey playing days were finished. But, a last-place AAA team called him, in des- perate need of a goalie. Within two years he was playing in the Western Hockey League and not long after that in the NHL. There are plenty of similar stories from players who refused to give up, or just happened to get a break. I even think sometimes that it's good to get cut, as long as it makes you even more deter- mined. A better explanation of that would be to say that if a player has that type of determination within him, that's when he finds it. Scouts and coaches don't know every- thing, and make glaring mistakes all the time. They can evaluate a player's skat- ing, puckhandling, and shooting, but it's not often that they can make a judgment on a player's heart and determination. For example, guess which round Curtis Joseph got drafted in. If you said the sec- ond round, you'd be wrong, the same as the third or fourth. In fact, he was over- looked by every team and never drafted. You or your kid may have been awful- ly disappointed if they got cut from a team this year, but that's why they should turn it into their advantage. They can use that rejection to improve and possibly make that team the next time. One thing for certain is that if the play- er is cut it will be easier for thetn to sit back and prove the coach made the right decision than to work harder than ever and prove him wrong. Spartans shade Reding Jon Gleed has once again stuck it to Bishop Reding. E.C. Drury's baseball veteran was the winning pitcher during an opening-round playoff clash with the Royals last spring. At Brian Best Park Thursday aftemoon, he managed to upstage BR one more time - driving in the go-ahead run in a 5-4 comeback victory for the Spartans. The loss was the first for BR in five out- ings while Drury improved to 3-2 - to all but guaranteed itself post-season entry. The Spartans' bats were rather dormant for most of the rain-soaked afternoon encounter. but came alive in the sixth and final inning to rally from a three-run deficit. Chris Whiting scored the winning run, while also coming home were Zack Cosby. Richard Chautems and Evan Jeans - whose cannon arm behind the plate high- lighted an impressive fielding campaign for the victors. Brian McComb was credit- ed with the win. For BR, Dan Digirolamo led with two RBIs while Ricky Nadalin offered solid pitching early on - working his way out of first and second-inning jams. Ail three local teams were expected to play double headers Friday, beyond The Champion's holiday deadline. Ail three local teams - including the Milton District Mustangs will make the playoffs for a second straight season. * 1 ,