On Thin Ice

02

As soon as I stepped on the ice, any nerves I had were thrown to the back of my mind as an after-thought. I looked around as other players made their way out to the ice. There appeared to be about fifty guys here and thirty of us would be cut by the end of the week. I would do everything I could so that I was not one of them.

I watched as Fox stepped onto the ice and glided over to where the coach stood, whispering something in his ear. When Fox skated through the crowd, it seemed to part for him like they knew of his importance.

After another minute, Coach blew his whistle and all conversation ceased. We gathered around and waited for him to speak.

"Good afternoon, boys," Coach began. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Coach Silva."

He paused for a moment, looking around at all the hopeful faces, before continuing.

"This is your captain, Fox Ridley," Coach Silva said, motioning to where Fox stood, leaning on his hockey stick. "Let's cut to the chase, boys. I can only keep twenty of you and I already have one," he continued, motioning toward Fox again.

After seeing Fox on the ice, it didn't surprise anymore that he was the captain with his powerful demeanor that could command a room.

"Those who don't make the team will be dropped to Junior Varsity," Coach explained. "With the potential to be pulled up to Varsity if we need you."

I had never played on a Junior Varsity team in my life. I wasn't going to start my senior year of high school.

Coach Silva looked to Fox as if he was waiting for him to say something. Fox stood up straight, no longer using his stick for support.

"Listen up," Fox said in a deep, commanding tone. "Forwards over there," he continued pointing to his right. "Defensemen over there and goal tenders over there." Fox pointed to his left and to the center respectively.

I felt Fox's eyes on me as I gracefully glided to the left side of the ice with the other defensemen. We briefly made eye contact and he was the first to look away. I wasn't going to let him intimidate me, not if hockey was on the line.

Fox skated over to the forwards while Coach Silva came over to the defensemen and goalies, holding a bag of pinnie jerseys in his right hand.

"After we do some drills, we are scrimmaging." Coach explained, starting to hand out the pinnies. "The color pinnie I give you determines the team you will be on and you're stuck with whatever you get."

I was handed a blue pinnie and let my eyes drift over to the forwards to see what color Josh had gotten. He got red. I didn't need Josh to be on my team, but it would have been nice to be with someone I already knew. My eyes snapped back to Coach as he began speaking again.

"Defense wear the inverse color of their pinnie so if you got blue, you wear the black side, if you got red, you wear the white side," Coach Silva said when he was done handing out the jerseys. "Understand?"

We all gave him verbal confirmation that we understood before he nodded and met Fox over at center ice. The two of them conversed for a few moments before Coach blew his shrill whistle, grabbing everyone's attention.

"We're starting with a skating drill!" he announced. "Blue team take a seat for now, red team line up on the goal line."

I took a seat on the bench and watched as the red team lined up. Coach blew his whistle and everyone skated to the other side of the ice. I looked at Coach and Fox as the two of them watched the skaters. They were looking at their feet, evaluating their foot work and skating technique. I had done this drill plenty of times to know what was expected of me.