From Newfoundland to the NCAA: Coach Shayne Morrissey on Hockey Culture, Youth Sports & Growing 1494 Hockey Club

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey there. I'm Kevin. And I'm Jamie. And we're your co hosts for 2 Clicks
in a Pod. Join us as we explore our missed times, stories and
memories due to divorce and a thousand mile separation. I can't wait.
You ready to get into it, Kev? I am. Hey, Jamie, you think you're gonna
swear? Oh, yeah. Consider yourselves warned.
All right, well, today we are joined by Shayne Morrissey.

(00:23):
Shayne Morrissey is a native to St. John's Newfoundland, Canada.
Shayne played junior hockey in Canada before committing to play
NCAA college hockey with Newman University here in
Pennsylvania. Shayne was named the ECAC
West Rookie of the Year in 2014 after his first season
in college. And after graduating in 2017, he sits

(00:43):
fifth all time in career points scored with 108 points in four
years. Shayne turned pro splitting his time between the
SPHL ECHL where he now holds the Evansville
Thunderbolts record for the most goals scored in a single season.
He brings a wealth of coaching experience. Coaching to begin with,
for 10 years in the extreme hockey programs in Canada. Shayne is

(01:06):
currently the director of operations and coach for the 1494
hockey club, as well as a director for the Philadelphia
Little Flyers Youth program. Welcome, Shayne. Thank you
guys. Thanks for having me on. Shayne is referred to in my life,
dad, as Coach Shayne, because whenever I talk about
him, everyone always asks, you know, coach or Hockey

(01:28):
Shayne or. Or Brother Shayne. So I always have to say, it's Hockey
Shayne. And it's picked up that even mom now will
be like, well, hockey Shayne. Is Hockey
Shayne gonna be here today? That's what she'll say Shayne. If we're at like tournaments,
is Hockey Shayne gonna be here? So that's great. I love that it
carried through to everyone in my life. Yep. I'm

(01:50):
just excited. He knows how to hang out the hood of Evansville. Man, that's
amazing. Yeah, that's. That usually ranks in the top 10 most
unsafe places to be. I enjoyed it. I had
fun there. I mean, I. It was definitely different than what I was used to.
More of a basketball city than a hockey city, I would say. But the
fans were great. The coaching stuff. The Purple Aces,

(02:12):
that's where we. My dad went to school there. Actually. I lived on the campus
when I was about 2 years old. Oh, really? Yeah. So
I was born in Evansville, Indiana. Yeah, we had. We. So our. The
Ford center where we played was also the basketball court as well too. So we,
we. We. We shared the arena with the Aces and. No, I was there
for, for a good bit. We had some. We had some fun times. And, you

(02:34):
know, this. The city was good. They. They treated us well. And coaching staff, the
organization was good. I liked it. I would have liked. There was. There were some
changes there that led to me moving on my last year, but I would have
liked to say, for sure, I. I enjoyed it. I was comfortable there. And the
fans and the teammates and everything were good. But. But, yeah, no, it wasn't too
bad. Yeah. I tell you, I love going back there. I'm not sure
why, but I do that little casino down there on the river, you

(02:57):
know that. Yeah, that's always a highlight of my return trips. But
that's across the street from the rink, huh? Dad, when was the last
time you were there? 2,000. And
just a few years ago, I met Don and I went up there to Miranda
Lambert concert there at the Ford arena

(03:18):
there. I think it's called the Ford Arena. Yep. Yep, that's what it
is. Yeah, that was the nice 2019, I think it was.
Yeah, that was just cold and nasty. And we got to the show.
Cody Johnson actually was the opening act. She took on the headliner.
And then as a cousin of mine that lives in Paducah.
And then I remember once saw the movie The

(03:40):
Gentleman, Matthew McConaughey, the Gentleman movie. Saturday.
Saturday afternoon in a cold, rainy day before hitting the casino at
Saturday night. Yeah, there you go. That would have been the year I was playing
there, I think. 2018. 2019 season. 2017.
2018 was my first year on there. Yeah. Yeah.
I love going to minor league hockey. It was great. We. It was too big

(04:03):
of an arena for what we. What we got for fans, I'll tell you that.
But. But it's. It was. It was a nice year. We were treated really well.
But. But, yeah, that would have been the year I was here at 2018, 2019
season. That was my second season there. Fun
times. Well, at least it wasn't like, a huge adjustment in terms
of, like, the weather in Indiana, coming from where you're from in

(04:23):
Newfoundland. So I want to hear a little bit of the backstory of. From
you, you know, growing up. Growing up there. And just
obviously we. You and I have talked about this, that while hockey feels big
to. To us, and especially to me as someone
growing up in Florida, you know, hockey feels like a big thing up here in
Pennsylvania. But you've told me many times, you're like, this isn't really

(04:46):
that big of a hockey market. And I'm just always shocked
because, you know, to me it is. But Obviously you come from
like the land of hockey. So yeah, like growing up there and
how did you get started playing and all of that. Yeah,
we know. I live, we're, we're on an island off the east coast of Canada.
So I live probably like 20 minutes from the farthest port point east in all

(05:08):
of North America that you can go. So you know, we're pretty, we're, we're out
there, we're isolated for sure. But hockey is a major thing for us
there. And my dad started coaching at a young age, his early
20s. So when I was born, I was born at the rink pretty much and
I was kind of dragged around all the games and I was at the rink
and then just kind of got involved in it right away. It's kind of inevitable
that it was going to happen I think just about being there and being, being

(05:30):
around with my dad and you know, there's a hockey rink on every corner just
amount, you know. You know and there's probably. Someone asked me this the other day
at the rink. It was like how many rinks are there within like a 20
minute span of like where I live? And there's probably like, if you think if
you factor in the rinks that have two in the same building, you're looking at
around like probably eight or nine rinks in the, in like a 20 minute span
of each other. So it's definitely, you know, there's, there's a lot of hockey going

(05:52):
on. Each one of them have their own team and they're, you know, everybody plays
for their town. It's a little different than it is here in our area. And
you know, you play where you live and you represent your city and it's fun.
I mean there's tons of kids playing hockey, you know, you know, and whether it's,
and there's still multiple levels, you know, you have your AAA kids and your lower
level, then you have your in house and your beginners and stuff. But, but yeah,
it's definitely, it's, it's a hockey market for sure. It's a unique place to live.

(06:15):
More kind of like a European feel I would say for like an Ireland type.
You know, that's where we get a little bit of our accent and our landscape
and our lifestyle is pretty, pretty similar in that sense. So it's, it's a
totally different place. I know it's a part of Canada, but it's a different place
to be for sure. It's, it's a cool place to visit. I recommend it. Obviously
I'm biased but if you ever get a chance. How often do you get to

(06:35):
get back home then? Because your parents are still there, correct? Yeah. Yeah. I'm
the only one that's not out of my extended family between, like, my parents. I
have a younger sister who's a year younger than me. Between my cousins, aunts, uncles,
everybody. I'm the only one that's not there. Yeah, I'm the only one that left.
Hockey kind of got me out of there and I ended up staying away, but
I try and go home a couple times a year between. Between Grace, my wife

(06:57):
and I, we usually alternate because she's from Florida. So we usually do Thanksgiving
and Christmas, so we'll alternate with each family every year and then in
the summertime we'll visit. We just opened up
a Canadian branch of our Fortunate Force Hockey Club,
so we're starting to expand a little bit and we're doing a couple camps and
stuff. So that'll give me a little bit. Not that I need an excuse, but

(07:18):
it'll give me to do one extra trip every year to go home. But
we usually do a summer vacation there and then once in the. During the holiday
season. So around two or three times a year we'll get to go, which is
nice. And then my parents will come visit a little bit here and there too,
which is good. Yeah. I've got a question on. On the landscape. I like
the way you term that. The landscape. How many. How many rinks are within the

(07:39):
landscape? Within that landscape, how many pubs are in.
So I live alongside of where we are.
Our downtown area is known for George street, which
is. It has the most bars per square foot of any street in North
America. There you go. Really? Yes. They host. It
is a great time. I knew there had to be beer on that. On. There

(08:01):
you go. Yep. It's great. We have a ton of. We have a ton of
Irish pubs. Like your. Your typical Irish drinking music and your
Irish. Your Irish folk songs, things like that are. Are a huge part of our
heritage, you know, and. And a lot of those little pubs
are. Are down. Down there. It's the biggest little street in North
America, they say all the time. And they host a festival every year. It's

(08:22):
seven. Seven days, seven nights long. And you go for a full week.
Yeah. And they, they block off the street. There's a stage there. So there's a
headliner of a concert every night. It's such a fun time.
I recommend it. You need to. There you go. I mean, I don't know that
I could survive seven days anymore. But I mean, I could do a couple. We
do Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday. Perfect. Sold. I like the break. That's

(08:43):
usually my. Thursday's the first night and then Tuesday would be the
last one. It's like the. It's like the going out days
in college. You go back to that. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturdays. That's what we did.
That's usually the nights. Those are the busiest nights. Saturday night is always
a Newfoundland night. So it's an Irish. They call it Kitchen party night. So it's
always our Irish drinking songs and all the Irish folks

(09:05):
tunes and that's usually the most fun we have. So
you don't have any need to go to Dublin, it sounds like. No, it's pretty.
A lot of people have told me. And it's not a far flight to Dublin.
Dublin either from St. John's we're pretty close actually. So yeah, it's pretty quick to
get over there. This is the Dublin. So that's a good. That's a good second.
I would love. I would love to go. Honestly, I've been wanting to go. A

(09:25):
lot of people said it's very similar. Yeah. Did not know this at all. Dad.
Did you know there was like the Irish heritage coming
out of there? No, I did not. I was surprised to know that.
So, I mean, we could spend a whole episode talking about that. Yeah.
Pretty obvious. Listening to. We might have to move away from hockey. You think so?
I've never caught the accent. Really? Yeah.

(09:47):
Leprechaun was going to jump off a show. There you go.
Yeah, and mine's not too bad anymore. My parents will give me crap
every once in a while because I've lost it or, you know, I've gotten away
from it. If I. If definitely not as strong as, you know, like
Jill and Ryan, that there's, you know, there's some that comes and plays with
us. Yeah, I. She's probably one of my favorite people to talk to

(10:09):
in the world because her accent is amazing. It's
great. It's totally different. It's a. It's a different dialect for sure.
Yeah. Grace will tell you that in the first little bit in college when
we met, it was tough for her to pick up on a couple of things,
especially on the phone calls when I was at home in the summertime,
you know, usually it'll come out a little bit more if I'm at home with

(10:30):
everybody. Yeah. You know, if I'm talking to people there. Maybe if
we were, you know, at the George Street Festival and we had a couple of
drinks Then maybe it would come out a little more than two, of course. But
how many? What number of pub he was on? Yeah, exactly. Right. Just
making my way around, but yeah, no, it comes out a little bit.
Have you met my dad yet? He's been down a couple of times for. I

(10:51):
met him once, like just. I mean, I've seen him a couple of times. I
think you actually introduced me last year real quick and.
But I didn't talk to him enough to like. This is pretty good too.
Yeah, my mom, my mom and my dad, they're like slightly different, but yeah.
So it's interesting for sure. But it has, it's always had the kind of little
bit of an Irish tone to it, for sure. Love it. Well, I, you know,

(11:13):
speaking of your dad, I am curious. You mentioned that he coached.
Did your dad coach you as a child or did you
have different coaches? No, he did say a non parent
coach, right? Exactly. A non parent coach. Yeah, my dad did.
My dad coached me a little bit when I was younger. A lot of times,
to be honest with you, he was more of an assistant. He did. And I

(11:34):
will say this, I will give him credit. When I was younger, I was a
little bit stronger for my age. So I played up, I played up a level,
played with some older kids. And I remember my dad was always like, he
was good with me. He was tough at times, but as a head coach, he
was very good. And I laugh with these parents talking about coaches giving their kids
more ice time and things like that. He was the opposite. I was the youngest

(11:55):
kid on the team. And I remember a lot of games, I'd be sitting there,
you know, and if it was the end of a game and, you know, the
older guys got to go or the stronger players went, and I knew he knew
where I stood. And you know, and I remember, you know, championship game, I didn't
get to go out there and whatever, and you know, but I was the youngest
guy and he was, he was great with me and, and he's like, look, I
have to coach a team and I'm your dad, but, you know, I want, I

(12:17):
got to do my best job. I want to win. Yeah. And I was young
at the time, you know, and he was great. He. That was, you know,
early on. I was really young at that point. Probably Parker's age, actually.
And, you know, he was great with me. And then as I
got older, he became like more of an assistant coach where he'd be around and
he'd help because of, just because of his experience. And then he, when I

(12:39):
got older, like more into like bantam age, so like 13ish.
He moved away from coaching me and then he went into the, the high,
high performance program for our, for our female group. He started coaching the girls a
little bit and he coached into the candidate games. So he got away from it
as I got older. Just kind of was a dad let me play and kind
of steered away from it anyway. So it was a combination of both which was

(13:00):
interesting for sure. I would love to pick his reign in here. Cause I'm sure
you tell him stories about what you go through and you deal with, with
parents and like it would be very interesting to hear from him too just
how he's seen possibly seeing that dynamic change with
just like how intense parents can be and with, with these
sports it's. I don't know as much as it's like I'm aware it's

(13:22):
crazy and you know, try to dial yourself back as that
parent. Being at Parker's rec flag
football game on Sunday morning, I just, I
looked over at Chris, I go, I wasn't made for rec
sports. Like it
just the dysfunct and you know, and

(13:45):
everyone's just kind of like this is gonna sound so terrible but it's like we're,
they're all just there to have fun, you know, so it's. I
don't know that I just too competitive for it I think. So I have
to remind myself though that as we often
say, these are nine year olds playing hockey. 100.
We had that this, this weekend. We had our, our little mites were on the

(14:06):
ice this weekend. And you know, they're, they're a
good group. Like there's some really solid players for their age. So there's. Some of
them are seven, some are eight and they're, they're young. Some of them have played
a little bit of full ice games and you know, which is just for those
who are not aware. A lot of the younger kids play half, half ice so
it's smaller space because they are tiny. Just like you would with it with a

(14:28):
soccer field. But for us we played a real game, you know, and,
and it's a big jump for them but we had a ton of fun. And
you know, some of the kids are, you know, just, they're on the bench and
they're asking every question but you know what hockey is and the
music is playing and everybody's cheering and you know the kids are having fun and
it's a different atmosphere for sure. But we had A blast this weekend with them.

(14:49):
And if you approach it the right way and you look at, like I said,
then it really puts it into perspective for you that they're like, they're seven and
eight year old kids and they're just there and they all left with a smile.
They're all happy and you know, that's really what's all that matters. But it's
definitely an adjustment going from, you know, a competitive to a non
competitive atmosphere. And I had the college guys that I, that I coach

(15:09):
at the NCAA level there. They were there, of course, and they're NCAA
athletes and they're on the bench and they're trying to encourage them and looking at
them like, guys, just have fun and don't worry about it, just cheer them on.
And that was it. Just be positive and if there's something to fix, you can
tell them a little bit. But yeah, it's a different atmosphere.
Yeah, but it is intense. And I mean, I

(15:30):
just want to like kind of hear how you, you mentioned
like, hey, it was inevitable, like getting playing hockey for so long, like
transitioning to, to coaching. But I really want to
hear just kind of like what made you really want to do that? Because
it's really hard to coach and it's really hard to coach children.
You know, how did you make that transition

(15:52):
and you know, decide this is it, this
is what I'm going to do. It came to me pretty early.
I know I've been around my dad, obviously. One of the good things I always
say is I've seen the highs and lows of being a coach by living
with my dad and seeing through it. I've been through the highs of
seeing all the kids that have all said positive things

(16:15):
and have all come back to see him and how much
people love being around him. I remember
being with my dad at the rank as being the kid and my dad chatting
with everybody and me waiting an extra hour for him to finish talking to all
the parents, parents and everybody to get home. I remember just going to our pro
team we had in town and walking around the rink and him stopping and seeing

(16:35):
everybody. And I've been through all that and I've seen it. And I've also been
through the tough times of being in the backseat of a car with
a parent that's following my dad around town because he's upset and he's waiting to
find him in a dark alley somewhere and being
scared. It's crazy. I
remember it clear as day. It might have been Parker's age. Maybe you're probably not

(16:56):
even somewhere around that range. And we were driving home from a game
and I guess a parent wasn't happy with something. I don't know. My dad was
like just driving randomly around town. I'm like, dad, what are you doing? He's like,
you know, so and so dad is following me. Like
why? He's like, he's not happy with me. Something, I don't know. He
said something happened and he's not happy with me. I'm trying to let him cool

(17:16):
down but he's won't let me go. So my dad,
my dad's real job, I will say because at this point
with us it's volunteer work. It's not, it's, it's not any paid
positions. We went to his work and he's a food inspector so he did a
lot of seafood essentially what was what he did at the time. And of
course it was a government building so they had security. So we ended up just

(17:39):
driving to his. I'm like, why are we going to your work, dad? It's Sunday
night. He's like, there's security here. Something happens to me, somebody can help me. So
that's what we did. And we went there and when the security guard came out,
you know, the guy drove off and you know, and I remember being a little
bit. When I was playing like in junior hockey, I was living away from home,
probably around 18 or 19. I come home and I remember
not time having to separate him from another parent, you know, parent coming after

(18:01):
him, having to me get and get in the middle. And so I've seen both,
both, both sides of it. You get to see the good and bad. But for
whatever it was, I was always interested in helping my dad like as I got
older with the stuff he was doing, you know, and I was always interested in
hockey in general. So when the time came I was, I was in
high school, so it's probably 10th grade. And then the opportunity came up for me

(18:22):
to work with extreme hockey in Newfoundland. And that was my coach at
the time for, for my 8. I was playing 18U at the time as a
15 year old and, and, and he was, he was great. He played in the
NHL and he was living there and running his whole hockey program. So
I got out on the ice and of course with me being in high school,
I was given the littlest ones and, and I just, you know, I've.

(18:42):
I always found like one of the things I was going to do if I
wasn't coaching hockey was education. I always Thought like I was good, like if
someone, what are you going to be if you don't want to be a hockey
player? And I said I'd be a teacher. So it was kind
of the same thing. It just happens to be hockey. And so, yeah, I
just kind of, you know, it kind of worked with, with the little ones and,
and I kind of similar to what I've done here, just stayed with that, that

(19:05):
group there and there's been some, some amazing hockey players come out of that, that
program now, guys that play in the NHL. And I've been able to watch them
grow up and be there. And yeah, I just kind of taken to it really
early on and I was just kind of a goofy high school kid that
got along with the kids and they had a ton of fun with me. I
had a ton of fun with them and really liked it. And the more I
got into it, the more I got involved and they kind of understood what I

(19:28):
wanted to do as well. So as a company, they were like slowly, progressively getting
me to do more every year to the point where I was running a lot
of things. And as I got older to 18, 19, 20,
and then into my college years, same kind of deal. So by the time I
was graduated with college and I was finished then, it gave me an opportunity to
kind of set. Set everything up for myself and kind of do

(19:48):
it here. Yeah, just, I mean that, that seems.
Yeah, working with kids and, and that young, that does take a skill set because
it's difficult. And as witness of a.
A kindergarten soccer game on, on Saturday, it's, it's
very, very difficult. And Shayne was my son was running
that side of the team and it's just, you know, the attention span is not

(20:11):
there. The kids, you know, it's amazing how some of them who know and
understand the game and you can tell when it's a part of family life
that these kids that know how to play soccer, it comes very easily and quickly
and can dribble the ball at, you know, age age six
that just looks everybody else like they aren't even
there. So I told Shayne he was not getting

(20:33):
renewed contract at the end of this year. So next year.
It's funny. No, it's good. I mean, that's where I started. I mean, I was
young too and I just had fun with them. That was it, you know, and
that's kind of. You gotta. That's all you can do, really. That's all you can
do. You have to shift, shift gears a little bit. You know, we had we
had a ton of fun with the kids. We made every day exciting, and it

(20:53):
was a lot of summer stuff for us. It was off season, so a lot
of summer camps where, you know, they. We were with them 24, 7 the whole
day, whether it was off ice at lunch or if we were playing games or
on the ice, it was. It was a lot of fun. We made it. We
made it really exciting, and that made it fun for us too. I didn't feel
like it was. I didn't feel like it was a job for me. I think
that's probably why I loved it so much. Yeah, it was nice to get a
paycheck at the end of the week, but at the same time, like, I just,

(21:16):
I really love doing it and I didn't really, you know, I honestly
really. I know the owner will say this. He told the story multiple times before.
When I first started, I didn't know I was getting a paycheck. I just, like,
said I was going to coach and I was there the first week I got
paid and I was like, I looked at him, he's like, it's your paycheck. I
was like, I didn't even know I was getting paid. I just signed up. Like,
I signed up the coach, and that was kind of how it was. I just

(21:36):
love doing it and it was fun. So this kind of lights. That's
really where it all started for me. Yeah, I just. That's amazing. That's amazing.
What little experience I have, I guess would be, you
know, going skiing in the winter time and, and
watching and having Kelsey in a ski school and seeing the instructor
with those, you know, three and four year olds. And I say, man, I do

(21:59):
not want to have to do that. That's. Yeah, that doesn't look like
fun. That's definitely interesting. For sure. It is fun to watch them
progress, for sure. I can't imagine that. That's got to be
gratifying. That's always the best part, for sure. Well, it's
unique for you too, I think, because you coach anywhere from what I
at least see. You know, you're working with the 5, 6, 7 year

(22:21):
olds and then on Friday night, you're helping to coach
Newman College hockey. So I'm very
interested how you, you know, code switch
between dealing with very little kids to then getting what I would think would be
a very enjoyable experience working with a college team. You know,
just, I think, lucky that you get that diversity. But how do you

(22:44):
manage flipping from those two very different dynamics?
I think that's One of the positives for me that I love about what I'm
able to do right now is like, I'm not really pigeonholed into one age group.
You know, I think everybody as a whole grows. And when, obviously
when I was younger and I was in high school, like, I was totally meant
for 5, 6, 7, 8 year olds. Like, I was like, my

(23:05):
energy, you know, the attitude, the way I, how I acted
with the kids, I was just super goofy and like. And I can still be
that. I'm still that kid, like 100, and I still will be. But I think
as I've grown as a coach too, like, I feel like I have more to
give and I've learned a lot. So to be able to still be that goofy
kid on the ice with those little ones and then shift gears to Friday night

(23:26):
and, you know, on the bench and maybe the odd F bomb here and there
or, you know, or like the, the intensity of the stuff on the bench and
the way the game has changed. And the one thing I will say is,
you know, I just try my best to shift gears. I think sometimes it can
be hard, you know, and especially on the weekends, like, I coach
11 and 12 year olds is my main teams that I coach. And so Friday

(23:48):
night is Newman, Saturday morning is, you know, pee wee hockey. And it's, it's
definitely tough at times. You know, it's. It's very hard to shift gears from,
from time to time. But, you know, I just try and channel it all in
and, you know, I either, you know, maybe think about something before you
say it or how you're going to approach it. And you
know, I try my best to really learn what works for the kids,

(24:10):
for each kid on my team. I know like some kids can, I can be
a little bit more tougher with, and I can, I can get on a little
bit. And they'll, they'll respond very well. They'll get it and they're good. And then,
you know, some other kids, I gotta, you know, I got to peel it back
a little bit and be a little bit softer or maybe just sit down next
to him and talk it out. You know, every kid is different. So I think
I've found that like, no matter what age group I'm coaching, I

(24:34):
think the approach doesn't change. But at the same time, maybe delivery could be a
little bit different. But it does help that I'm an assistant coach with the college
team. Like, I'm not fully in charge, so I'm more of a players,
players, guy where, you know, they'll come to me for questions and I'll help. Not
so much any of the strategic side of things. Obviously, I help facilitate
a little bit and I help push the head coach's message. But,

(24:57):
you know, I think that definitely helps where, like, I'm more. Obviously I'm the head
coach for my youth teams, but being an assistant for college, I'm just more of
a players guy. So it's pretty much the same thing. You know, all the college
guys, it's the same thing. Yeah, 100%. I get to really
sit back and just kind of pick away at the game and not really in
charge of making any decisions. I just more help the players. They ask me questions,
I answer them if I see something I pointed out. So that definitely helps. But

(25:20):
it can be tough at times. I've had some adjustments for sure,
but I try my best. Or if I feel like I'm getting
heated in a college atmosphere, could work. Not at 12U. Then I just take a
step back and take a second and then I'll dive into it.
Well, as a grandparent, at the last time I went and watched
Kelsey, who's in Dallas, my youngest, and her two boys

(25:41):
playing. And Leo is old enough that. Well, he's
Parker's age, so. And he plays there at one of the stars
complexes. But the most frustrating, and I think this is
probably Jamie can relate to this is just. Then goes back to the point about.
About your dad having to run from everybody because people were
upset at the coach. You know, me sitting behind the glass and

(26:05):
watching these youngsters not have the ability to jump over the
boards and get on the ice, but have to go in and out that door.
And yet there's a coach sitting there and standing there, and
you've got players coming off the ice and players going, you know, into the
bench. And for whatever reason, nobody seems to know
have any protocol is. Is get out of the way and let the kids

(26:27):
get in and then you be able to go out or better yet, work it
both ways. And it's. It was so frustrating. I said, this
isn't hard to solve. Somebody, for the love of God, let him out first. Let
the one out on the ice first. Yep. Get them out of there and then,
my goodness. But oh, my gosh, every time they do a shift
change, I'd say, lordy, that. That right there is a. Is a

(26:49):
booger. That just. Well, as a parent, yeah, watching that, that
was probably the hardest thing to watch a.
Watch them learn as a team because it's Such a
logical thing. I think as an adult, you're like, no, let them out
and then you'll go in. It's kind of like the elevator effect, right? Like
when you're waiting for an elevator, the proper etiquette is you let the people come

(27:11):
off before you go in. And maybe the coaching was
happening, but from where I was sitting, it wasn't.
And so I was like, oh, for the love of God, this is one thing
I could actually coach. Like teaching a. The. The. The
actual flow of a line change. But yeah, dad, that's.
They're better. I will say Parker's team is. I do think they're

(27:34):
decent at that. They're still challenging. I think they're pretty good at it.
Yeah. They're going to come to the point. This wasn't even close to being good.
This was just frustrating. You know, I don't think about it didn't bother them, you
know, and then. In a couple years, they're going to want to jump over the
bench. That'll be fun in itself. And I'm kind of at that
age right now. I'm at that age right now with my groups that they want

(27:54):
to do it. And most of them are pretty good. Like my, my. They're. They're
going into bantam, so they're pretty good with it now. But they're like teenagers, right?
They're like preteens and teenagers. So some are really tall, some are not yet. So
some can get over, some can't. So that's always an interesting thing. But yet it's
never a dull, dull moment with those. For sure. That was one of
the things I had envisioned. You sitting there on the bench and then you knew

(28:15):
you were in trouble when you saw one, one. One kid jump over the
board and he disappeared, you know,
face first, and you're screaming, get out on the ice. Get on the ass. And
you can't even see him. You don't even know where he went. You know, the
best is watching the mites when they're so tiny that they can't see over the
boards. So, like, it looks like there's nobody on the bench, but as soon as

(28:35):
that door opens, there's five of coming out. Yeah, I love that.
Yeah. Watching them try to hop the boards is. Oh, my God. It's
funny, terrifying at the same time. Not yet, kids. You're not
there. We'll get there. Well, the. The middle schoolers
that you have, you know, I think. Because that's kind of an age where you
really do. Obviously it's competitive at every

(28:57):
age, but I feel like that's an age. Right. It's almost like I can justify
that. You know, you're kind of approaching high school, which is, you know, you're really
getting to a high level play for people who
won't carry on into college. But those that want to need to be
competitive. So how is it with,
with working with those and those are Your what you 10,

(29:19):
11, 12 year olds is what you have basically, or no? Yeah, we're, we're
13 you and 12 you now like going into next year. So they're
like 11, 12, 13, like that range. Yeah. So they're
like literally going through puberty. Like big life changes.
Right. Maybe they're starting to get interested in more social things
because they're teenagers. So how do you keep kids

(29:41):
that you think like, no, this kid's a good player, like he's got talent. Like
how do you keep them motivated in that
transitional, like on an emotional level, social level, like keeping them
focused in. Or maybe it's not hard.
I will say this. I've been like really lucky right now with the groups
that I've had. I've actually been coaching the same team since they've been eight.

(30:04):
So I've had four years with both teams. So this
will be my fifth year with the same age group, the same group of kids,
a lot of the same kids, to be honest, which I'm very fortunate to have
the same groups of kids and parents around. I will say that I'm lucky that
they're all pretty hockey motivated. So I don't think the outside forces
have really creeped in too much yet. I can definitely see the changes, of course,

(30:25):
the emotions and you know, just the off
ice stuff and you know, they're like finding their way. They're like
toeing the line of what they can or can't say to get away with. And
you know, there's little things like that. I think the biggest thing is like
phones and social media at this point, you know,
so it's been, it's been good. I don't think there's really been any,

(30:47):
you know, I've been fortunate enough, you know, that, that there really hasn't been anything
that we've had to deal with or we feel like they've kind of gotten away
from hockey and you know, they're, you know, I know I'm a little bit biased
because I love them, but I feel like we have two really strong teams, which
helps that they're. We're good teams. We Compete. We're very
motivated, so they've been good for me. I have done, like, some cell phone rules

(31:08):
where, you know, when they're in the locker room with their buddies, there's no cell
phones. And, you know, before games, when it's time to go in the room to
get ready, there's no. There's no cell phones out or anything like that. So they.
They hang out with each other and they're off their phones. I think that's probably
the biggest thing is just dealing with phones and social media, the Instagram posts and
things like that. Mm. I try and, like, I'm pretty open about
stuff. I mean, like, they all have cell phones. They all have my phone number.

(31:30):
I know they're 11 and 12 years old, but they need something for me. They
always reach out and. Or they'll text me. I always ask them, like, if they're.
I know. I know you're not the one driving, but if you're running late for
practice, you text me. It doesn't have to be your parents and give them some
responsibility. And they're all pretty good with that, you know, so. And you'll stay
with them? Like, will you keep coaching that, those two teams? Yeah, that's my
plan. Yeah. I'm gonna stay with them. You know, we're. We're moving into them getting

(31:52):
older now, and it's worked out great. The parents are good, the kids
are great. Everybody's used to me, and I find, you know, my
message hasn't gone stale. I think I've grown with them.
We'll say at the same time, and we're all. I feel like I'm really close
with all of them, but at the same time, they all respect me enough to
separate Coach Shayne and just

(32:13):
Shayne that I've known for a long time off the ice, you know. Right.
So it's a very good. We've found a very good happy medium that I find
works really well. So definitely interested now that I've seen the. The little
kitty age now I'm getting into the, you know, the. The
preteen stages, and we're kind of like a big. Like an uncle, you
know, like, you've seen all of that. That's pretty, like, very

(32:35):
special for those boys and those families to get to have you with
them for so long and, you know, continue down that path because it's. It is
a unique experience. For sure. It is. It's
interesting. And. And I think the parents make it what it is. To be honest,
I feel like the parents have been great the kids have been great. Our atmosphere
and our team culture has been amazing. And that, that makes me want

(32:57):
to, to come back every year too. Yeah, that's, that's the best
part about it. When, when you are, you know,
and, and when you're in that 11 to 13 range and you're
starting to see the, the development kind of the, the progress that
your hard work has put forward and kids, you know,
showing, showing a better ability

(33:19):
in the younger years and I guess what the direct question has to
deal with as a coach, is there a point in
time based upon the child or based
upon the lack of skill or maybe better. The lack
of interest is probably a better way to put it to where
he's there because mom and dad want him to be there, but he's just

(33:41):
not. He's just not. He just doesn't care. He's
not, he's not hockey intelligent or have any desire to
be. He's there because he's kind of being not
necessarily forced. He enjoys going.
But his, his lack of interest or his lack of
really ambition and desire to be a better player

(34:03):
just isn't there, I mean, is there a time where you just kind of have
a conference with the parents to say. And
that's a, that's a business question as well. You know, you want the kids to
play because it's, it's generating funds. But
if he's, if he's picking dandelions, I mean, he just doesn't, you know, you
just, there's no need for him to be there. So. Yes, no, thankfully

(34:24):
for us it's, it's AAA hockey. So it's a little different. You know,
when you start dealing with, with like double A or A level or more of
like an in house type, that's where you start to see that a little bit
more. You can see it. I mean sometimes you can see the interest level and
kids drop off as they start to get older and you can, you'll start to
see it now. You know, you, you have some kids that I've, I've spoken with

(34:44):
a bunch and you know, I had a kid one time at 8 years old
and he was an unbelievable athlete in another
sport, you know, and they missed a lot of hockey because of that
other sport at a young age. And as, as a coach who would love to
have the kid there, it was tough, you know, because obviously we needed him.
But at the same time, you know, he was also very good in this other

(35:04):
sport. And it's, it's toug kids and you don't want them at nine years old
to have to isolate one sport. You want them to be athletic and do other
things, especially if they have passions for it. That's the other thing too. So
I've been in situations where, you know, that player didn't come back the following year,
you know, and I would have loved to have him play, but he dropped back
to a lower level so he can be a multi sport athlete as opposed to
focusing his time on playing at a. AAA level and kind of dialing it back

(35:27):
in the other sport, you know, so there's, there's definitely been instances where that
happens. You can kind of see that, you know, over time. And
that's part of life. I mean, some sometimes. I've seen so many kids,
like I've coached kids at, you know, 13U and now they're,
you know, that was when I first started. So now they're around 16, 17 years
old and you know, now they're a wrestler and you know, they're going to go

(35:49):
to college for wrestling. You know, things change over time and, or maybe they just,
you know, they enjoy playing a little bit of hockey for fun and that's kind
of it. And then they go to college and they get their degree and they
go on into the world after and work from there. So, you know, you see
it all the time and you have to accept it. You know, I can,
I can see it in, in some, some kids too sometimes. And

(36:09):
you know, sometimes the parents want it more than the kids, you know, but
as long as they're enjoying coming to the rink every day and they love what,
what they're doing, that's what matters most to us. And if it's not, then, then
that's okay. You want them to be happy doing something, right?
Exactly. That's what's most important. Well, and as you said, stepping back is
not so bad as long as you get to play, you know. Exactly. Yeah. You
can find there's multiple ways to do it in a sense that like they

(36:32):
can still play hockey and still do other things and enjoy it. It doesn't have
to, you know, hockey can be part of your life, but it doesn't have to
be the whole thing if that's not what you want. Yeah, you hear a lot,
or I've heard a lot recently. Like these professional athletes
are, you know, going on podcasts and talking about just,
hey, let your, let your kids play different sports and let them play

(36:52):
a fall and a spring and a summer and do it all. And
I love that idea. I love that concept, but
I don't think it's realistic in the youth sports
environment right now because again, as a parent whose son
loves to play hockey, you know, one that is his preferred sport above any
other sport, but if he wants to be good at

(37:15):
hockey, then he almost has to play the full year,
you know, And I think it's just. It's become that. And I
think that's any sport, you know, I have good friends who. Whose son plays baseball
and he's playing baseball year round, you know, and
again, if he wants that spot on the high school varsity
team, it's kind of expected. He's playing this other club team that's

(37:37):
going to keep developing, you know. So I guess. What do you think about
that? I mean, do you agree with that or.
I don't necessarily. I don't. It's funny that I
say that because, you know, obviously I own
Fortune Force Hockey Club, where it's. And I tell people this
all the time, you know, like there's. I talk to so many parents about things

(37:59):
and my business and how I make a living is based off of
spring and summer hockey. It's off season. Right. So
naturally, you know, as a business owner, I want business.
So. So yeah, I would. Obviously we have tons of kids in our
pro program that are playing at different levels and they train, but
as you know, from Parker being involved in our program, there's options, you know,

(38:20):
and. And what we decided to do for our program a
couple years ago when we first started is we don't practice
multiple days a week in the spring and summertime, you know, we practice. You know,
we'll do two. Two practices back to back in one night. So two hours of
hockey in one night as opposed to two separate nights for one hour. And, you
know, I give the parents. If they would like to do four weekends of a

(38:42):
tournament, then great. If they would like to do one tournament, awesome. If they would
just like to practice with me, that's fine, too. And the reason
being is because I believe that a good hockey
player or it should also be a good athlete. And I
think kids should be eligible to play other sports. They should be
open to do other activities. You know, if by practicing with us

(39:03):
once a week on Tuesday night for two hours, you've got Monday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday open for them to do
soccer, dance, music, whatever they feel like they want to
do, or just go run around outside with their friends and hang out, whether it's
another school activity or whatever. You know, I think for.
I know I'm fortunate to Say that, you know, Grace and I have really

(39:25):
found a way to have a good, happy medium and encourage kids to
play lacrosse, to do other sports. You know, I love. I love playing other
sports with the kids at summer camp and just the kids being athletes, you know,
and you talk to a lot of other professional hockey players, talk to pro
hockey coaches. You know, you look at a lot of the NHL teams when they
do development camp for their rookies. They do a lot of football, a lot of

(39:47):
soccer. They play other sports and do other activities with them because they want to
see if their players are good athletes. And it would be hypocritical if I
said you had to play hockey all year round. You know, I think, you know,
because I did. I played hockey all year round. Yes. You know, I did my
summer camps, I did my spring training, did a couple tournaments here and there, but
I played volleyball. I played basketball right up. I played basketball right up until

(40:08):
on my freshman year, my sophomore year of high school, I played soccer. I was
fortunate enough to go to prep school for hockey, and I played soccer. I played
on the soccer team as well, and
I played volleyball. And, like, there was a little bit of everything,
you know, and. And for me, I think that was really
helps. They also need a break every once in a while from hockey to. Myself

(40:29):
included as a coach, you know, But I think I agree in
a sense that, you know, if Parker loves hockey and that's his
number one sport and he wants to play hockey in the spring and summer, then
of course. But our program is structured in a way for parents
to not feel like I'm telling them they have to play hockey
all summer, all spring. You know, we do one summer camp

(40:51):
in July, one in August. And I know people do. We're not the only. You,
like, you know, every. You'll do other stuff with other programs and other coaches and
things like that. But, you know, for us, we make sure that we're structured in
a way that it's not overload, because we do feel like the kids should do
something else, you know, like his flag football or, you know, whatever they play. You
know, that's great for him to be able to do that. And I think that's.

(41:12):
That. That's always been my philosophy. Parents. Parents come to me all the time. Like,
I feel like he's been off the ice for a week, and I feel like
he lost it. I'm like, first of all, he didn't lose it. He didn't lose
it. It'll come back in, like, 10 minutes. Like, you'll be fine. But, you
know, you can take a break and you can understand. And even during the season,
we have parents that come to us and are like, I just don't think we
should have, like, an off weekend. I'm like, we definitely should. Everybody like, oh,

(41:34):
my God, I love the off weekends. I. Whenever parents are
like, well, like, people ask me, like, well, how many
games is that? How many games have we had? How many games are we getting?
What does Shayne say? How many games? I just, like, I literally, I'm like, I
don't know. It's gonna be a lot. Like, I. Yeah, that. I think some people
are hyper about, literally, like, how many

(41:55):
hours. How much many hours of ice time are they getting? And I mean,
to me, I just don't. I don't focus on that. Like, I feel like we
put so much time in. Like, when you're like, we could pick up an extra
tournament, I'm like, we're good. Yeah, I don't need to go anywhere.
I'm happy. I'll take the weekend to mow the grass and not be stressed out
about how I'm going to fit that in. There's a very fine line between what

(42:17):
you want for your kids and like, like you said, like, there's so many kids
that hockey's their main sport, and they, and parents couldn't be like, what do I
do? Like, he only likes playing hockey. Hockey. I said, totally fine. Then you
put him in hockey and that's fine. But take an off day. Tell him
to go outside, hang out with his friends, take him to the park, whatever you
want to do. It doesn't have to be an organized sport. It's just anything, you
know, take him for a run, for a walk. They can do a little, little

(42:39):
workout or just do something, you know? Yeah. Or if they sit at home
and play an hour of video games, you know, I mean, like, not. Not a
ton of time is screen. Screen time is great either, obviously, but like, just something
different, you know, because they will get tired, they will get burnt out, they'll get
frustrated, and, you know, they need. Everybody needs a break no matter
what you're doing in life. Oh, yeah. That's why there's vacation time for a reason.

(43:01):
Right. You know? Yeah. So it's tough. It's definitely a hard
thing. And I think parents are so worried about, like,
every parent of youth sports in general, I think, just has FOMO over
everything. Right. They see someone, you know, little Johnny is skating here
and, oh, my God, I feel like I. I Should do that. You know,
if you really feel like, go give it a try, fine, but you don't have

(43:22):
to, you know, or we got to go to this turn. Like, this team went
to this tournament, and it was, like, amazing, you know. You know, one thing for
us, and I've been pretty, pretty open about it. One of our teams, like, there's
a really good hockey tournament in Canada over Thanksgiving,
American Thanksgiving. And I've told our families, like, well, we'll never go.
And if that makes you decide not to play here, that's fine. It's one weekend
of hockey. There's so many good hockey tournaments, and you know, that. That you can

(43:45):
go to. And there's other tournaments in Canada. There's a hockey tournament in Canada every
weekend, you know, but for us, you know, my wife and I don't get
to see our family. You know, we don't. We don't live close to our families.
And, you know, so that's our time to go visit, you know, and maybe we
could adjust one year, you know, to help. But at the end of the day,
like, it's also Thanksgiving. Just relax with your family and enjoy, too. And,
you know, and then the following weekend, we're right back into it, we go to

(44:07):
another tournament. So it's, It's. It's a fine line. And I feel like, as a
program, we found a really good, happy medium where we don't overload people, but. And
they still get to play with us. And it works from a business standpoint because
we have tons of kids and we're excited about it, but I also feel like
we're able to give the kids an opportunity to do something else, which I think
is most important. They got to be, well, well rounded, for sure.

(44:28):
Well, tell dad, because he does. I don't know how much he knows about, you
know, your club, but you obviously started out, you know, coming
out of playing professionally, started coaching when. Tell me
what 1494 hockey is and when did you.
I'm pretty sure you told me you started this in Covid. We did,
like, right before. Right. So I guess two steps. One. What is

(44:50):
it? And how. How did you really get that started?
So one of the things that nobody knows, which we've kept pretty quiet, but it
used to actually just be 14. Hockey. That was the
original name of the company. That was the first year we ever tried
anything we had. It was the year before COVID We had
two small summer camps

(45:12):
at Iceworks here in Philly, and we had about
20 kids in each one. It was like, super small. And at the time, you
know, Grace was still playing pro hockey, but she was also looking at doing
some. Some form of medical degree. But I knew that hockey was my thing. That's
what I was gonna do. And real quick, just. Grace is your now wife?
Yes, yes. Yes, Grace is my wife. Yes, she was. She would have been

(45:34):
my fiance at the time. And so I had started this whole
thing, and obviously she was. She was with me, and she was. She was helping
with the two camps as we got going along with it. And Grace was still
relatively new to coaching at the time, was kind of. I kind of dragged her
into the coaching, and it was an opportunity for us to hang out in college.
And, you know, I was doing clinics and stuff. So, you know,

(45:54):
we. We did it together, but I was kind of spearheading everything because it was
what I wanted to do. And she was kind of still playing pro hockey, but
looking at when she retired doing her med. Doing some. Some form of med degree.
And for the summer camps, and we did. Actually did one in Canada, in Ottawa,
where I was. Where I played junior hockey as well. And everybody had asked,
like, why isn't Grace in this thing?

(46:15):
And. And, you know, we didn't really. We didn't really think too much of it.
And at the time, Grace was kind of like, you know, we didn't really think
a whole lot of it. And then after the
three camps were finished and we got down to the summer, we looked at each
other. We were like, it has to be 1494 hockey.
You know, and she was like, I want to do this more. Like, I really.

(46:36):
Like. She enjoyed it, and it was great. I think us as a group, as
a duo, is. Was really working, and people wanted that. You know, we had a
lot of girls that were coming into the program to be with Grace. And then
when we realized that Grace was going to be more, you know, more
involved in everything from the business side, we changed the name to
1494 hockey, which. My jersey number I wore when I was playing was

(46:56):
14, and Grace's was 94. So that was kind of how we
came up with the name. It's very simple and nothing crazy. It's not a year,
or at least. I know it's a year, but I don't know if anything happened
that. That. No, it's not 1492. No. Right. I was going to say
1492. Yeah. Which everybody says to us, too, but.
But, yeah, so we made it 1494. But at the time, nobody had known

(47:17):
anything about us, you know, other than the 20 to 30
kids that did our summer camp that year, we went back to play our
pro seasons. Grace and I both played. And then Covid had hit,
which shut down both of our years. So all my
plans had gone out the window. We were done for any summer
camp of a year or two and getting the business growing and adding more kids,

(47:39):
But I took the time of sitting at home doing nothing. And Grace was
also working at an orthopedic clinic at the time while she was playing.
So I would be stuck at home all day and not doing anything. So
I started to build up the business a little bit more. I built our website,
tried to make things look a little bit more official. I kind of did all
the, you know, all the legal work and all the accounting and everything.

(48:00):
I started just kind of building the foundation for Grace and I. And then
we got a call from the rink and asked him, and they said, hey, we're
about to put out, you know, some ice time. And I'm very fortunate that,
you know, I've grown close to Stefan, the president of the rink. And he was
like, are you willing to give it a shot, like, in the middle of COVID
with everything going on? And I said, look, let's. Let's go for it. Like, it's

(48:22):
fine. So I quickly finished the website. I had the posters done,
and, you know, for a lot of businesses, Covid was a really hard time, and
it was tough for a lot of companies. But, you know, for me, I don't
know if we would be where we're at if it didn't happen, as funny as
that sounds, because everybody was so desperate to get their kids
out of the house to get them back on the ice. We were the first

(48:43):
program in the area to post something that we were. Willing to do it,
like, in that time. Yeah. And I. And I took a chance on it. We
had a ton of safety measures with the mask. There was no parents allowed in
the rink. They had to get dressed in their cars and then walk in. So
there was a ton of things that we had to do, but we took a
chance on it. And then our first group of. Our first camp that we did

(49:04):
over a weekend, like, it was like a Saturday, Sunday. Sold out in 24 hours.
We had, like, 85 kids. And then. So I called
the rink back. I'm like, hey, just give me a couple more slots. Let's see
if I can make this thing work. And then we had another group sold
out in 48 hours. So we had probably about 100 kids
total, like, right off the bat. None of them knew myself. None of them knew

(49:24):
Grace, obviously. They. Thankfully, I had the website done so they could do a little
bit of research before they showed up, but they didn't really care. They just wanted
their kids out of the ranking on the ice and. Yeah, yeah, we did
a ton of stuff with the kids on the ice and every. And the.
Thankfully, the kids had a good, good time because the parents weren't in there, they
weren't able to watch, so they solely relied on their kids

(49:46):
for. If they wanted to do another one. Okay. Yeah. And that
was kind of the crazy part is we really appealed to the kids. We had
a couple parents trying to sneak in to watch here and there that we had
to kick out. But, you know, we. We really made it work. We did.
We did three of those over that summer for Covid, and it was. It was
great. And then everything just kind of taken off and blown up from there.

(50:06):
Yeah, yeah. And then more people. You know how it goes. You talk
to your friends and they get their kid involved. And then the following season,
we started building our teams. We started from the ground up. Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Just a year later, I was like, okay, we'll try and do a couple teams.
We just did two. The two birth years that I started with. And it was
one team. It was just two teams. That was it. And then we did a

(50:27):
couple tournaments with them and we did a couple girls teams as well.
Just very small and kind of taken off pretty, pretty quickly from
there. And then we just kind of started to grow everything. And so now we're
coming up on our fifth year. So it's still pretty young, but at the same
time, it's grown so much that it feels like forever at this point. That
it does feel like it's longer than that because you say five years, but,

(50:49):
you know, you're running now 2017, so those
are the seven, eight year olds. And you're going all
the way up now to your 2012, right?
You're 12, so that's pretty crazy. Like, you've picked up every year. And some years
you've got multiple teams for multiple age levels because you have so many kids and
so much talent. It really is impressive that it has only been five years,

(51:11):
actually. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I think the biggest thing for me, which I'm thankful
of, and I was very cautious in how I wanted to build it,
to not overdo it, where I felt overwhelmed. So I started with
that 2012 birth year, and I had a 2013 group that was kind of
small and started with them and the following year added the 2014. So we added
from the bottoms. I never really tried to overreach or overshoot for anything. Every

(51:33):
year I would just add another year. And now eventually we're getting to where we
have a group. But Grace and I, as business owners were able to
kind of grow with the program as well. So I'm more understanding of the
administrative side and how to manage putting everything together and dealing with the
teams. As our company has grown now we have more coaches that we can rely
on to do other things for us. So it kind of worked out that we

(51:55):
started small and I'm glad we did it that that way. But it has kind
of grown and being able to grow it from the bottom up has been great
because every year we have a new group of kids coming in that
hopefully can stay with us for five years. Like, like the 2,012
have done with us, you know, so. Yeah, so it's been. It's been kind
of crazy to think about. It feels like a lot longer. But if you look

(52:16):
at it, just being able to add through it, it's been very good. Yeah. Yeah.
And I guess, like, the difference when people ask me, like, well, I don't to
kind of explain how it works, I said the only way I know how to
explain spring hockey to you is it from like, think about
when we were kids, meaning my age, I'm like, it's like the all star team.
Like, it's not regular season. You're. There's

(52:36):
opportunities to continue playing hockey through the spring, but it's typically
all travel. You know, you're not staying necessarily in your region. You're
going to a bigger geography and you're playing against
usually like kind of the best of the best. Like the kids who want to
be playing hockey year round because either they just really love it or
they're actually pretty good at it. It's kind of how I explain it to people.

(52:58):
Would you agree with that? Yeah, I would. I think the cool part about what
we do is it's off season, so there's no rules of, like, who can play
with who or you don't have to play where you live or anything like that.
And like I said, some. Some parents will do just do one tournament. So, you
know, like you've talked about earlier, like, there's friends from Newfoundland, where I'm from, and
there's a bunch of kids that, you know, we have now in our program that

(53:19):
get to trap. They'll travel to Boston for a tournament with us. And, you
know, so all of our kids get to meet players from different levels.
And I haven't done the math yet, but we do every year. I always add
up how many different youth organizations are involved in our program and how many different
US States, Canadian provinces, You know, we're going to have three different Canadian
provinces between Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland. Now that. Of kids that will

(53:41):
be involved in our program, and we're, we're just about all over the US of
kids that are joining us. And it's, it's, it's awesome. And I think
the best part about it that I love to see is these. All these kids
coming together from different places, and they all live in different areas, but they get
together. You know, we'll have our training camp every year that all the kids get
to meet at our rink first before they go anywhere. So they're all well aware

(54:02):
of each other and they make friends and they'll have friends for life and
that they never really thought they would have met. And they're all from different states
and different backgrounds and cultures, and they all come together and they get to
wear black and yellow and they have a ton of fun on the road and
the parents enjoy each other, and that's really what it's all about. You know, I
don't think you could ask. I mean, I don't think you could. Some, some kids

(54:24):
maybe, but for the most part, like, you can ask my
2012 that have been with me now for four years, going on year
five, like, how was the Boston tournament in
that first year you went? And they would probably be able to tell you we
lost in the quarterfinals, which was a huge deal for them, and we played the
number one team in the country and we got smoked. But, you know,

(54:45):
other than that, they wouldn't be able to tell you who we played, what score
of the game it was. But I guarantee you they will tell you about the
mini sticks in the hot and the team dinner where
this kid did something funny. And that's really what it's all about. And
don't get me wrong, like, yes, we're teaching them hockey and
they get to learn a lot from these hockey tournaments. And the kids have grown

(55:05):
so much, and I'm thankful for that. And when you're at
the rink, it's time to work and it's time to learn. And we've won some
tournaments and we've lost some tournaments and all that. But at the end of the
day, these kids experiences that they get from meeting New kids and meeting
new families, and Jamie, as you know, with other parents and getting to meet other
parents and hanging out at the hotels, and it's so much fun. And that's really

(55:26):
what we found very early on, was going to be super
special, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's just, you know, I was
telling dad when he and I recorded last time, filling him in, like, we
survived, you know, tryout season and just how stressful that
was. And it is. And it's nice to hear,
like, to sit down and talk with you like this, to hear you talk about,

(55:47):
you know, seeing it through those eyes of the kids,
because for whatever reason, and you could probably have a
psychologist on in this group and it would be a great conversation.
Why are parents determined to, like, live through these
children? You know, and ultimately what it. What it is,
is about these kids meeting other children and forming

(56:10):
relationships and learning how to be emotionally
socially capable human beings that I think
kids get through sports. Like, I do think sports are important, I think. Oh,
yeah. I think being on a team is a really important
thing, you know, to learn how to work with other people. But
I guess I'm segueing long winded into that question of just

(56:33):
like, has it always been been this way with parents,
or do you feel like it's getting worse and you're still young
and it's like, maybe ask me that 20 years from now, but
is it. Is it like, is it worse? Is it getting worse? Like, why do
you think parents get so
invested? I mean, it is like an emotional,

(56:56):
physical thing with some people, and including
myself, yeah. I think everybody's guilty of it. Like, as a coach,
I am, too, you know, and, like, you're investing. You know, the crazy part
about being a coach is you coach these. These little humans,
right? Like 9 and 10 years old, you know, And I. And I
say this all the time because I'm probably. I'm probably right. Like, Grace, I don't

(57:17):
have any kids yet, but, like, these parents and
that are so living through their kids and they get wound up over
every little thing that happens, you know, in the game, or they make a mistake
or, you know, they fumble a pass or, you know, they miss the net when
they shoot, right? And we all be like, oh, my God, I can't believe they
just did that. At the end of the day, they probably took their stuffed animal

(57:39):
on their road trip with you and their blanket, you know, and. And you go
back to the hotel and, you know, they're still at the hotel with their blanket.
And their, their bunny and, and then it puts it into perspective, like, oh my
God, like, okay, I just gave him a rash of shit for doing
X, Y and Z. But, you know, he's still a little. Kid, you know,
Sleeps with a blankie. Yeah, yeah. And I think people forget that. They get

(58:00):
so wound up. So it's very hard for, it's hard for everybody to
understand, you know, because as a coach, I can be hard on them, you know,
and I want to push them and I want to motivate them and there's times
where, you know, I can be their best friend. But at times, you know, they
might, they might not like me because I was a little bit tougher on them
that day because they weren't really given the very best, you know, so it's like,
that's always the hard part of a coach, is finding the happy medium, you know,

(58:21):
but, but yeah, it's. That's kind of what
always brings me back to center, I think, is like when,
especially when you're dealing with that age group and you're dealing with those young kids
and, you know, it's tough to kind of.
To deal with that. I think parents forget that sometimes. And on the other side
of it too, you know, when we're just talking hockey specifically, like, it's an expensive

(58:43):
sport, you know, I hate the fact that I have to charge
as much as I do. And listen, business is business, unfortunately, and I have to
run a business and I have to pay my own bills and that's how it
goes, right? But I had to pay my coaches and I had to pay for
their travel and everything else that comes with it and the expenses. But at the
same time, I also want to make sure that, you know,

(59:03):
I understand that parents pay a lot of money for this, right? So for
me, you know, they're spending a lot of money, so they expect a lot and
the expectation is very high. But at the same time, it's trying to take
those expectations and turn them into a reality. It's the toughest part. And
I think, you know, the reality is, is that yes, you can have, you can
have high expectations, right? We all want to challenge the kids to get better and

(59:25):
do other things. But at the same time, you know, the reality is they are
going to be 8, 9 and 10 year old kids and they are going to
make mistakes. You know, you're going to watch the Flyers play on TV later that
night in the NHL game, someone's going to fumble a pass and
miss and miss the net too. And those Guys make. Instead of paying
thousands of dollars to play hockey, they're. They're making millions, you know,
so, you know. And you just paid $300 to watch them. Yeah. So,

(59:48):
you know, and that's kind of the reality that I try and put it into.
It always brings me back to center. We can all get up. We can all
get. We can all overreact on it every once in a while. I think the
heart. One of the hardest parts of my job is definitely trying to
help with those expectations for parents and making them see things. And everybody's
different. Every parent group's different. Their goals are different. But at the same time, I

(01:00:09):
think that in itself. And like I've said, I've been on. I've been in the
car rides with parents, if they help with a ride because Gracie's at another rank
or, you know, and I've been at the hotel. I've done the curfew checks,
you know, and all those things where, you know, you open the hotel door and
there's the. The bunny or the bear, and. And you're like, huh, okay.
So. Yeah, all right. You know, so it's tough. I mean, everybody

(01:00:32):
wants you. I always want what's best for the kids. But at the same time,
you got to really try and do the best that you can to help the
kids and try and deal with the expectation a little bit. Well, and I'll say
this a lot, like, because Chris will say, well, if he's, like, he'll be frustrated,
like, if Parker isn't playing a good game, you know, and he
gets so upset or he's getting so upset, and he's like, well, you know, we

(01:00:52):
just. We spend so much money to do this, and all this time, and I
just look at him and I'm like, all true, but, like, we made. We
actively made that choice. That is not Parker's fault.
That is our fault. Like, we were. We signed the. You
know, Parker signs the contract, but, like, we're signing the contract. We own
that contract, you know, and so I try to. Like,

(01:01:15):
I. That's where I try to bring it back down to when you're getting frustrated.
It's kind of like, hey, he's here to play because he likes playing hockey and
he likes hanging out with these kids. We made the choice for him to
play on a team that. That travels as much as it does or
costs what it costs. Like, there's other options out there. And. And that's just the
reality. So. And I think that. And yes, 100%, like.

(01:01:36):
Like, I get that all the time. He pays so much money for this. I
just don't know why he's not doing X, Y and Z yet. It doesn't make
sense. Sure, but you have to look at it this way. Like, you're paying money
for. For what? Right? Like, okay, yes, you're
paying money to be coached by myself, by Grace, by our, like, other college hockey
players that we have or the pro guys that coach and people with tons of
hockey experience are going to be on the ice with your kid, and we will

(01:01:59):
do everything possible to motivate them, to teach them so they grow. Right? And
I've seen so much growth and so many players in our program, and that's the
best part about what we do. But when they get older, you know, you're
spending all this money for them. You know, they're also going to learn
discipline. They're also going to learn how to deal with adversity. They're going to have
to learn with dealing with that one teammate that drives them crazy, that, like, they.

(01:02:20):
That they don't want to deal with, but they're going to have to. Because at
the end of the day, when you go out there together, you're going to have
to play for each other. You know, you might not, like, you know, you're going
to have to deal with playing that really, really good team that you may never
beat, but you can give your very best every single second you go out
there knowing that you may fail, you know, or. And then maybe at the end
of the day, then, you know, you're paying that money for them to, you know,

(01:02:42):
for your kid that you could barely skate at the beginning of the year is
now flying up the ice and having a ton of success, or you have a
team that wasn't, you know, an underdog, that wins a championship at the end of
the year, and, you know, that's what you're paying your money for, you know, and
yes, you are, 100%. You're spending your money on your kid getting better,
and you're, You're. You get all of that, you know, and you get the coaching

(01:03:02):
and you get the little help and the skill sessions and all that, and that'll
come with time for sure. But at the end of the day, I think
parents forget the other half of what they're really paying for, and that's the
stuff that pays off later on down.
Down the road when all this is done. And, you know,
they're adults and they're living their lives, and you're like, God, I miss going to

(01:03:24):
the rink. Yeah. I miss tying their skates or I miss driving them, you
know, so that's what people forget. And it's trying to, trying to rein that back
in is always the hard part. But yeah, you have to.
Sometimes we just always joke, we say that Parker's going to be
the best beer league hockey player that Aston will have seen in years.
That's what like. And obviously we're kidding. I mean, what he gets of it, he

(01:03:46):
gets of it. I always say, like, go into it, you know what you're
doing. And, and it is more than just how successful is he,
literally. And, and, and does he make it to the next step. But
again, like I said, being on a team, learning from others, like you said, learning
how to deal with adversity. And I love your comment about there's a give me
the kid on the team that you don't really like and how do you deal

(01:04:07):
with that? Because there's people I work with that I don't necessarily really
like, that I can't not treat them with respect and not be
professional and help them if they need help. Those are all
great, great life lessons for sure. 100. And listen, who's to say,
like, I, I know the percentages are low playing
pro hockey. Right. But I mean, I did it, you know, Grace.

(01:04:29):
Grace did. It's tougher as a, as a female to play too, you know, like,
it's possible. Parents tell me all the time, oh, you know, you know, oh, my
kid's definitely not making the NH Omelet. I don't know. I mean, he's eight. What's,
what's the saying that he doesn't, you know, and I'm not here selling everybody. I'm
saying, hey, come play for 1494. You're going to make the NHL. No, you're. You
come to Fortune 94, you're going to be part of something special that like, you're

(01:04:50):
going to have a ton of coaches that'll motivate your kid and you'll life lessons
along with hockey lessons. Right. But at the same time, I'll never sit here
and tell someone they're never going to make it. Yeah. Because who knows, right? I've
seen so many kids grow and, and players that you would have never guessed, you
know, and it just, you have no idea how things are going to play
out. Right. I try and be super positive with them about that and

(01:05:11):
letting them reach their goals and if it doesn't happen, then they learn something else
along, along. The way along the way.
Well, I am going to put you on the spot because you've baited me with
this story, but I want to, I want to kind of like get to closure
here by. We talk a lot about crazy hockey parents, and
there's a million reels and memes and I am, I

(01:05:33):
am definitely can be one of them. It actually got brought up last night when
we were just at the pub. Oh, really? Someone was like, what did
you say again? That it was one of the spring games, I
think some team from New Jersey that we were playing and they were
being really rough and the other team, whatever, and they just
weren't all that great of skaters and they

(01:05:55):
kept calling penalties because their,
their player was like skating into one of our players and falling,
basically. So I finally just like, had enough. And I just screamed at the
ref, I was like, it's not a penalty if a kid can't skate. And
everyone was just like, oh my God, we cannot believe you just said
that. Because it was obvious who I was talking about. Because it gets

(01:06:18):
like. Ran into it right there and I remember Chris looking
at me and he's like, oh my God, like that kid's parent could be right
here. And I was just like, what? I mean, I can't take it
anymore, you know, but. And then you, an hour later, you're like, I am
literally the worst version of myself when I'm sitting at
a 8 year old's youth hockey game. But I know I'm

(01:06:40):
not the worst and I'll leave it with that and let you tell me. I
want to hear about the trash can. Oh, boy. Okay. All right.
I gotta feel so bad. He might kill me if he ever sees this. But
I'll say this anyways, especially with dealing with my dad, you know,
and you know, I, like I said to you before, I have seen
as a kid the crazy hockey parents, you know, I have, I've

(01:07:02):
seen it. And as a kid, you always see it. I mean, you see the
dads in the stand screaming, you see the fights in the stands and you see
all the videos trade. You had a coach attack a referee the other day
in a New Jersey a level game, right? Like, just went straight into the
locker room. You know, you've had so many instances and
you talk to so many young referees now. And my cousin,
a senior in high school, and he referees and I asked him about it and

(01:07:25):
he's getting used to dealing with the yelling and being yelled at. And I don't
think it's worth the money that you make refereeing to be abused by parents.
But unfortunately, like, somebody has to do it right. And he makes really good money
and he, he's very good at handling it. But, you know, and
I've been good. Like, I try and as a coach, I've tried. I try to
talk to a lot of referees like about just their experiences and stuff to see

(01:07:46):
and I really try and take a deep breath before you want to say something
and things like that. Even as a coach, you catch yourself sometimes and hockey is
a fast paced game, even for little ones. And there's, you know, there's body
contact, there's things happening and sometimes you don't have that
official that's not really paying attention to the game. Or maybe you get that
teenager that's like super nervous and they just don't know what to do or say.

(01:08:08):
And you know, their hand goes like this as opposed to like just straight up.
Yeah. You know, or they'll go like this and wave it off. And you know,
I've seen a bunch of those and everybody's seen them at this point, but they're
just, they're nervous and they're inexperienced and they're learning just like your kid. And I
think that's the hard part is people can't separate that because they get so crazy.
But yeah, I've seen it with my dad and all that. We did have a
time in the spring tournament where a parent wasn't overly happy with the

(01:08:30):
situation, got upset, he threw a trash can, you know,
and, and it's, and it's, and it's. I guess you could say it's funny now
because it's two years later and you know, and it's done and over
with and you know, and of course, like, you know, he, you know,
there's supplemental discipline from, you know, and USA
Hockey usually steps in with a lot of stuff and they've been very good with

(01:08:51):
handling like dealing with officials and things like that. And everybody has their
moments. You know, I've seen parents walk out onto the ice,
you know, to go after an official or you know, parents screaming and fights in
the stands with each other and. But yeah, I know the parent is still with
me and he's, and, and listen, here's the thing. He's
been, he's been great. I mean, you know, he, he plays, he plays for me

(01:09:12):
this year on my team. And, and the kid's a great kid. The parents are
good, but you just get, you know, it's, it's funny. You watch the
video and you're like oh, my God. You know, but, yeah, and it was tough
because I was on the bench at the time, and I saw it happen. And
of course, all the kids, every. Everybody in the ring saw it, obviously, and
it's tough. But, I mean, he was. He was good about it, you know, like,

(01:09:33):
he ended up, you know, not being able to watch for a bit,
you know, and he kind of had some supplemental discipline from it,
but, you know, he wasn't able to watch his kid. And that's a hard thing.
You know, you. Everybody loves watching a kid play, like, so I
think, you know, but we did. We did a couple trips, and after that
had happened, we did a couple trips. And, you know, I. I

(01:09:54):
can say that he's been. He's been great. Yeah. You know, and. And, you know,
you learn from it. The emotions get the best of you, you know, like,
that's. That was one that probably stands out the most, I think,
because you just. You're just filled with emotions and that
happens. I mean, I. I can say, like, I could see that being
done by several people. And to me, it's like, it's been

(01:10:16):
so much worse. What you hear and see. I mean, like, literal, literally physical fights.
Like, to me, it's like. Yeah, you throw. You throw something because it's sitting there
next to you. I can see that the fighting is. Is pretty wild when you
see the, like the moms attacking each other.
I would. I. I will say it's tough. And like I said, even as a
kid, dealing with it with my dad, like, having to drive around town for, like,

(01:10:37):
20 minutes because my dad was afraid to go home. Yeah. Over one crazy
person. And you know what the funny part is? Like I said, I was Parker's
age. I was 10 years old. Like, I'm 33 now. I still remember that. Yeah.
You know, like, those things don't leave you, you know, I will tell you a
funny story that I was, like, just from a coaching
experience, I was coaching a game one time in New Jersey, and we had a

(01:10:57):
girl that was refereeing. She was a teenager, and there was another boy that was
reffing as a teenager as well. And they were. Our kids were good. Like, we
played another good team. Like, we were two good AAA teams. I
would probably say that these two refs were still young enough that they probably shouldn't
be doing our game, but those were the only two ones they had. And they
were there when. When. When they both skated out. And they always come over to

(01:11:17):
the bench and talk to us before the game. I kind of knew what we
were getting into. And, you know, it was
another good team. It was a. It was a heated game and it was. We
were. It was two to one for us. We were winning. And
what happened was, is the other team had scored or
what we, I'm going to say is the opposing team, they did not score. The

(01:11:39):
other team thought they scored. Okay? It was, it was
very questionable. And there's no cameras. There was a live bar camera, but it's only
for the whole rink. You can't see right behind the net. You know, she
points for a goal and then waves it off immediately. So we're like, which one
is it? The parents are screaming like it's a
goal. The other parents are screaming it's not a goal.

(01:12:00):
So she comes over to the, to the
bench, talks to her partner, and I can tell they're like, super stressed out.
And I'm like. And honestly, for me, like, this was also a non league game.
So the game didn't matter. It was just two competitive teams. And funny enough,
like, our kids were friends. Like,
because of my program, I had known the other team's coaches. The other

(01:12:23):
parents all knew each other. The kids were friends. They all played with each other
at some point. So, like, it was an intense hockey game. Nobody wanted
that goal on my team to be counted. The other team wanted it for sure
because they would have tied it up. So she comes over to the bench,
she looks at me and she goes, I don't know what to do.
Just straight up. I said, well, what do you think happened? I said, I'm just

(01:12:43):
like, I come down, I'm chatting with her. I'm just. I felt so bad, right?
I'm like, what do you think happened? She's like, I think it went in, but
I don't know, 100. And I said, well, if you think it went
in, call it a goal. Be done with this now. And
everybody's screaming from the stands. And like, the other art, myself and the other coaches
are like, stop. Like, just let it be quiet. So it's dead, dead, dead

(01:13:04):
quiet. I said, if you want to call it a goal, I promise you I
won't say anything to you. Call it a goal. I said, I don't think it
went it. I said, I said, if you want to call
it a goal, call it a goal. I'll tell my coaches, my parents, kids, don't
say nothing to you. And go. And instantly she starts
crying. Oh, God. And I'm like,

(01:13:26):
it looks like I just made this referee cry.
And I'm, like, trying to, like, I'm like, okay, take a second. Like, it's
okay. So I called the other coach over because we're. I've. We're friends. We've known
each other for years. I call him over and he's like, we're friends. Like, this
is okay. Like, we'll get through it, you know, like, no big
deal. Like, it's all good. So I said, call it a

(01:13:48):
goal. Take a second, like, get some water. Like, we're all
good. And then she called it a goal, and the
hockey gods got us, and we ended up winning in overtime. But the crazy part
about the whole thing was, it's like, you don't actually
realize, like, how, like, that probably
$45 she got from. For that game was not worth it. Oh, my God.

(01:14:10):
She's probably traumatized now, but if it. Wasn'T for some of these kids that deal
with this, like, they wouldn't. You know, they wouldn't. We wouldn't have a
game to play. No, that's right. So you forget that
sometimes in the intensity of the game and everybody's screaming and going crazy, and,
you know, you. You know, it's just. It's just a tough time. And, like,
there. It's so hard with this game and. And the way that hockey has gotten

(01:14:31):
with certain things, and, I don't know, it's. It's. It's tough. It's really hard,
you know, but you have your incidents and you learn from them, and two years
later, you can laugh about them or joke about them. Yeah. You know, and, you
know, everybody will say, you remember that time you made the referee cry? And I'm
like, don't say that too loud, you know, but we
made it through, and we got through the game and everything was okay, you know,

(01:14:53):
but you forget. But it's so easy to get wrapped up. You know, you see
everybody screaming, and you see the fights in the stands or, you know, trash cans
being thrown. It's hard not to. I guess. I, you know, I've learned
a lot, and I've seen a lot. I will say that for sure. But you
get a little bit of it all. Well, and we'll continue to do so. I
mean, obviously, you know, I'm assuming the plan is to keep growing. And you

(01:15:15):
mentioned, you know, opening up some camps up in Canada, so that's
awesome. I mean, is there anything you want to share, like, for those
listening, anything about, you know, you want to promote or share with us?
You know, we're. We're excited to expand in, into Newfoundland.
I've always been wanting to do stuff. You know, I'm very thankful for
the, for the group that I worked for in Newfoundland. I wouldn't have any of

(01:15:38):
this without them. Honestly, I, I learned a lot from them and how I run
my program and how they do do things. So I try not to step on
toes when I'm home. I really don't want to be in a business where I
want to compete with anybody. So, yeah, we're very fortunate to find a weekend where
like, there was no hockey going on and the other program that I worked for
wasn't doing anything and, and he's great. He's been a huge mentor for me and
I try to make it known that I'm not trying to steal business from anybody,

(01:15:59):
but for me to be able to go back home and do something with these
kids and provide them with an opportunity and take kind of how I've been able
to do things here, you know, because originally, you know, I learned everything that I,
when I first started, people started seeing things differently on what I was doing and
it was just a different style and, and how we were doing everything was kind
of different than what was according to parents anyways from, from what it had been
done in other places. Yeah. So to be able to take what I learned there,

(01:16:22):
to bring it home and now to do some of the things that I've learned
here, to bring them home is like, it's great for me and kind of like
a full, full circle moment. And to be able to do that is going to
be super exciting. And you know, we have, we have our showcase. We're getting pretty
close to being sold out, which is crazy. But like I told you, there are
a lot, a lot of kids that play play hockey. So yeah, we're close
to being sold out, which is awesome. And we're excited to kind of bring that

(01:16:44):
to Newfoundland and also to continue growing our
program here. You know, we've been fortunate to have so many amazing families
and kids that really make this worthwhile for Grace and
I. You know that we get to be around great kids and
families every day and it's what makes Come to the Rink Fund every day for
all of us. So obviously like, like most people

(01:17:06):
were on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, just 1494's
hockey club where I'm making, I will say we are making a little bit of
a name change. So we were 1494 hockey, but now we're going to be
1494 hockey club. So we're going to take that name full,
full, full time moving forward, starting in August. And
that will be, you know, an exciting thing for us. We're kind of

(01:17:28):
doing a small rebranding of sorts and with some new jerseys,
some new logos, and things like that. So after five years of doing it, we're
excited to kind of build off a little bit more with some more coaches, more
teams, and doing a little bit more for the kids. So I can't wait for
that. I'm excited. That's awesome. All right. And we'll make sure that we. We tag
you and all this and share that. We can reach out and check out the
website. And obviously, we're heading into. For parents with

(01:17:52):
kids, you know, that are looking for something to do with your child in the
summer, heading into summer camp season. And Yalls camps are great. Like, the
kids love the 1494 camps. You guys do a great job of
making it fun. And I think from a skills perspective, I will
speak as a. A mom who's put her son in many hockey
camps. You guys probably are the best. You do it the best in

(01:18:14):
terms of making it fun, but them actually
getting really good attention to fundamental skills and. And
developing them in a short period of time. So I am a huge
advocate for. For the programs. We'll share that for sure. For sure.
And that's. That's the biggest part. We want the kids to come back. Right. And
like I told you, our first. Our whole company had success based off of the

(01:18:36):
kids, you know, and the kids wanting. Telling their parents. And that was kind of
the crazy part about. About it. You know, usually parents like it. They come back,
but we based it off of the kids and. And, oh, yeah, and they learned
a lot. The parents felt like they got a lot out of it, or the
kids felt like they did. And they always felt like they're learning, you know, but
at the same time is they really want to come to the rink every day.
And like, you know, we have parents that drive pretty far to play, to play

(01:18:57):
for us, and they drive far distances to be at the rink with us. And
it's crazy to think I chat with a lot of them and they say, listen,
we only do it because they keep asking, you know, so, yeah, that's what matters
most to us, of course. And great, great families and kids that if they all
want to be there with us, they're all going to be motivated to learn. So
that's what's most important. That's awesome. Very awesome. Yeah.
Well, thanks for. For doing this. It was great to have you on.

(01:19:20):
Yeah. But now I appreciate all the support you've given us.
Absolutely. And I'm more than happy to be on and help
help support you guys and what you do so. That's right. Well,
I'll see you Wednesday morning at 6am Most likely. 6Am
Ready to go. Thanks, Shayne. Appreciate
it. Thank you guys. Thanks for having me. Thank you for tuning in

(01:19:42):
today. With so many podcasts out there, we are grateful you chose to spend your.
Time with us and we'd love to hear from you. So send us your questions,
comments and feedback to
info@2clicksinapod.com and we might feature
your message in a future episode. Also, don't forget to follow us on social
and head over to our YouTube channel where you can watch the full episode live

(01:20:02):
and in living color. You can find us at 2 Clicks in a Pod. That's
2 as in the number Clicks in a Pod. Well, James, until
next time. Love you. Love you too, daddy.

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From Newfoundland to the NCAA: Coach Shayne Morrissey on Hockey Culture, Youth Sports & Growing 1494 Hockey Club

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