First Day - Off the Ice

First day, here's the situation as I see it.

Most of the kids and parents are meeting each other for the first time. Many of the kids do not know anyone on the team, many have never played hockey (or any team sport), and a lot of the parents have not grown up playing minor hockey.

For myself, it's my first time as the head coach in minor hockey, most of my helpers have not been involved in minor hockey since they were kids, and every parent is watching/judging from the safety of the stands :-)

Knowing all of this, I can confidently say the first day is equally exciting and stressful for all involved.

And I wouldn't rather be anywhere else!!!

Here's what I did to create a great 'First Day Experience'.

Coach Chris
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Greeted each parent and child individually to learn names.  I find if you make an effort to remember the names, you’ll get most of them right away, don’t just let it slide in one ear and out the other.  Everyone’s favorite word is their own name.
 
Got Luke to hang jerseys on the hooks around the room, so kids could see numbers and choose the number they would like to have for the year as they showed up.  I know many coaches like to give out the jerseys before the first on-ice session, but I think the kids enjoyed trying to decide what number to wear.  However Ican see positives to both approaches.

Team Name Change.  This was a very fun activity, however it was kind of hard to facilitate.  But that was the fun, and point, of it.  After several rounds of voting we landed on ‘Lightning Sharks’.  BTW – about a third of the kids in the room didn’t know what voting meant.  Remember these first time hockey players are only 5 & 6 years old.  I had to explain if they liked a name they had to raise their hand.  Also had 3 kids raise their hands every time I read aloud the next suggestion, I guess they liked all the team name suggestions.  On 'Day One',  I had a piece of paper with the old name printed on on it and placed on the door.  On Day 2 however, I placed the sign below on our dressing room door.  Kids loved it!!

 
Team Handshake – had kids watch Luke & I do it first.  Then each kid had to go tell another kid their name and do the handshake.  Lots of smiles and lots of laughing going on, especially considering most of these kids were strangers to each other.  However, I find 5 & 6 year old's become fast friends if you create the right atmosphere. Big bonus here was the parent’s approval.  As I mentioned, a lot of these parents have their kids in hockey for the first time and it’s a room full of strangers.  But this one simple act had many parents smiling between their sips of coffee and nodding at me knowingly.  Big WIN!
   
Informed parent’s that I wanted to hold a ‘Parent Meeting’ next Saturday or Sunday, depending on time of practice. Would only last about 10 minutes. I had arranged others to be on the ice with the kids for the first 10 minutes of practice while I chatted with the parents.

Dressing Room’s #1 Rule. No one walks around in socks or bare feet. Keep your hands off the floor!  Explained that having someone step on your foot or hand with skates on isn’t something we want to happen.  We have a busy dressing room with 18 players, plus at least 18 parents, plus siblings, etc.