last game of the season

the high school hockey team i coach just played their last game of the season. i am so incredibly proud of those young men. we started the season with just 9 players, and 4 of them had never played ice hockey. two of those four had never even skated before.

we picked up a few more players, and two them also had never been on skates before.

they busted their butts all year. they improved every game. with three games left, we finally won a game 6-4 against a team that had beaten us 13-2 early in the season. that team didn't even make the playoffs and only won 5 games all year.

tonight we played the #6 seed for playoffs. at one point in the game, we actually had the lead. we ended up being down 5-7 with 1.5 minutes left. they scored an open net goal to make 8-5 final score. we played a game of real hockey against a real hockey team.

despite the loss, it was an awesome finish to a tough season.