This was a very long weekend. Hockey was the central theme of the entire weekend. Gary Tan of Malaysia came to Jakarta per request of many to help a starved hockey program.
Andrew got to get his "first taste" of
real hockey. He has been wanting this for a long time, and because of my new job adventure where I just recently quit my job and need to save money,…I am unable to send Andrew to the Czech Republic for summer hockey camp. His cost for 3 full days was very reasonable. It was 1,400,000 Rp cash. What was unexpected was the amount of people that showed up for this camp. Over 30 people signed up to his camp. Even Gary himself was surprised. The late night start with horrendous traffic didn't slow anyone down. Everyone was there. 9:45pm on May 2nd was the beginning of hockey for over 70% of these young boys and Andrew was part of that strong percentage.
Gary separates the little kids and the big kids. The little kids are chasing a soccer ball and wouldn't you know it,…Andrew gets into it with Joshia. Now, there was a parent spreading rumors that Andrew started this whole mess….WRONG. I have the entire sequence on video. Andrew didn't start anything. This is a little incident, but it is fun to show you the competitive spirit Andrew has. The problem is that my girlfriend hears about Andrew all the time from the other parents.
"Andrew is too rough".
"Andrew is too loud or too mean." (okay, I will admit that we have had to clip his wings when it comes to being too loud, or shaking a stick at someone if he gets angry, but of late, I don't see him heavily checking anyone, or misbehaving. Not really. Remember folks, this is hockey. You want your little kids to grow up wearing a dress go figure skating!!!. Anyway,…that was the last of Andrew and his tough attitude. Coach Gary pulled player-x and Andrew aside (an incident I didn't see) and told them to get along or he would take them off the ice. I had a talk with Andrew that he needs to make a GOOD impression,…not a bad lasting one. This attitude adjustment he changed immediately. He didn't want to be punished. Well,…the strong coaching and the kids listened to Gary. It was wonderful!
Andrew went home that day exhausted. He could barely move. We got home by nearly 12:30 and had to get right back up at 5:30. I was exhausted as well. 5 hours of sleep. My girlfriend and I took cat naps all day long all weekend long in order to catch up on any sleep.
The drills were very heavy on the second day with an additional off ice training in between. Whew did Andrew's equipment…and himself stink by the end of the day. I was forced to stay up and wash 3 loads of wash and dry them before I hit the bed. That left me only 3 hours of sleep.
Day 3 was a KILLER. Andrew had practice in the morning. Then he had to fly on over to Taman Anggrek for some dancing thing performed by the junior hockey players, then rush back for the final practice. This was killer on everybody. We got to meet hockey parents just like us (well, maybe not just like us, for I'm a bit biased), who were very enthusiastic parents and had absolutely lovely children. Also got to meet a few adults who participated in the camp. They were exhausted, as well. Imagine being that exhausted and so happy to be so.
After the 3rd day was complete, it was agreed upon by the parents and Gary that he would come to Indonesia MONTHLY for 3-5 days. THIS is exactly what the kids need if they wish to someday compete on an international level. We are honored for Gary and his team to do so.
Any issues?…The fog. The fog was so high that the kids couldn't play a final game. (I do think they would have loved it, but they were so exhausted anyway. No big deal.)
Need to stay at a hotel if we do this again. The travel was killer.
Other than that, I didn't see too many other obstacles.
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