Breakfast Club: Week 10

Has His Kirkness become like Johnny Carson in the waning days, so busy with other engagements that he has a rotating cast of "guest hosts"? Hmmm... Let's see: last week's guest blogger was the infamous Scott, and this week you are graced by the equally infamous Laura. As we roll into next season, time will tell if you see Leno or Letterman more often than Johnny.

Now, a point of clarification: there were actually two Lauras in the breakfast club this session. Of the three registered chicks, who'da thunk that 66.67 percent would have the same name? The Laura that was clocked by Scott in week five was "the other Laura". Not that I haven't both given and received my fair share of clockings, of course, but it just wasn't me that time.

Today's final class was primarily focused on one-on-one and two-on-one drills. I could give a laundry list of what it was that we were supposed to do, versus what we actually did. But instead I'll digress a bit and recount something said post-practice by the third chick, that being Emily. You boys probably wonder what us girls talk about in the locker room, eh? Well now you know. Yes, we (sometimes) talk about you! And what Emily said was how much fun she has had, and how incredible it has been to see the amount of progress achieved especially by the more beginning players (admittedly speaking for herself as well as her cohorts). And I couldn't agree more.

I was wondering the other day, how many of you lettered in some kind of sport in high school? And how many of you are still regularly playing that same sport? Probably not too many. With football, for example, you're pretty much done after high school. Yes, you can play a little touch football at a picnic, few and far between. But with hockey, all you need is your stuff and a list of drop-ins (such as, ahem, can be found at www.hockeymoms.org) and you're all set. So, thank you, coaches, not only for helping me to improve my skills, but more importantly for sharing your "love of the game". No, I'll probably never skate like Scott and Lyle and Dave and the other guys who start their 'friendly little pick-up game' after us Breakfast Clubbers get off the ice (in my next life, I'm gonna skate like that). But speaking for someone who never even put on hockey skates until she hit 40, I think I' m doing pretty doggoned good, thank you very much. And I know I'm pretty doggoned that much better because of the likes of these coaches. And because of the encouragement and cameraderie of "all you boys" who were my Breakfast Club buddies.

So, yes, SEE YOU NEXT SESSION, boys, and keep your head up. (pseudo)Kirk-Out.