Charlie Liu’s Blog

Well, a hockey performance that is!  Charlie’s Princeton Squirts Orange (Squirts B) team has had a rough rough start for the season - they had a head coach that was never there for the kids, literally (he never attended a single practice and seldom made it to a game, let alone a full game, and a few weeks into the season, he quit the coach job for personal reasons, then the kids were without a coach for a few more weeks); a 0-8 record (9-52 goal differential) to open the season, and a cumulative 2-14 record with 21-86 goal differential (0-6 league games, 6-33 goals) prior to the last weekend.  When a parent described the record as horrible, I couldn’t help but corrected her that the record was simply abysmal.  Charlie’s last year’s team, on the contrary, narrowly lost a berth to the 3-team playoff in the league and played in a National Invitational Tournament. This year was certainly not an ideal situation.

But, since a couple weeks ago, there was a sign of hope - new head coach Jim was appointed, and he’s a parent too. Clearly he’d love to see this group of hard-working but beaten-down kids to win as much as we do.  We were all so frustrated and tired of seeing the kids playing a game really hard, but in such a chaotic manner that they almost always lose to the other team, be it better or worse than us!  Jim had a parent meeting that the coaching staff communicated very well with the parents and things were looking up for the first time in the season.

Last weekend, Charlie’s team met with two technically inferior teams and they beat both handily, as expected.  The kids gained back some confidence and had good practices.  But this weekend was the big test, a Thanksgiving tournament with 4 teams in our group, each team playing against each other before the 1st & 2nd place play again to decide tournament champs.  We’ve played against 2 of the 3 teams in the tournament earlier in the season and lost to both with scores of 2-4 and 1-4.  The parents felt at the time that our team was as strong as the other teams, but the lack of coaching direction at the time hindered the team to play as a group or with any strategy.  Now with the coaching situation cleared up and the coaches regularly encourage and educate the kids, we could see the improvements and we couldn’t wait for a formal test of how much the kids had improved!

Black Friday, when the early birds drove around to find good deals, we dressed Charlie up in his cool black Princeton Jersey and headed to the tournament.  Without fanfare but with renewed enthusiasm, the game went underway.  Our first opponent was the Cranford Squirts team that beat us 4-2 earlier in the season.  From the start, our team was constantly attacking, and within minutes a quick attack resulted in an early 1-0 lead.  The kids kept attacking, but a strong defense and good goalie kept the score at 1-0 till late into 3rd period. The Cranford team, sensing a chance, led waves of attack onto our side, but our defense and goalie hang tough and the offense helped out tremendously.  The 1-0 score was maintained till the end of game and everyone was thrilled by the turnaround: we beat the team that beat us earlier!  Everyone knew that now we had a good chance to go into the championship game if we just get another win!

Friday night we went to a dinner at my colleague’s. Charlie had a lot of fun and even performed a bit piano. He had so much fun that he didn’t go to sleep until 11:30 at night while needing to get up at 6:20 am to go to the 1st game at 7:40 am.  I was worried about his energy level, but he surprised me with a much spirited effort against a team that beat us 4-1 earlier in the season.  In fact, the game quickly developed into the best ever hockey game I’ve ever experienced.  Right from the start, the other team, Brick hockey team, came attacking.  They quickly scored a goal, and I remember thinking to myself - oh no! I hope the kids don’t get deflated and give up!  They certainly didn’t!  They fought hard and tied the game 1-1 a while later.  But Brick team came back up 2-1 moments later.  Oh not again! I thought.  But our kids were real fighters - minutes later they tied the game up 2-2 on another great play.  Yet another Brick club attack changed the score to 3-2, and I was even getting a bit disheartened, how would the kids do?  They simply surprised me by sending waves of attack at the other goal, and soon enough, the score was changed to 3-3!  Every parent was giving the kids a standing ovation, and there was this overjoy spreading - not just because that the kids had a chance to win, but that such a fighting spirit and never giving up is just what we wanted to see in our kids!  With such a spirit, you know there’s always a hope no matter what the score is!  Another beautiful play by offense changed the score to 4-3 Princeton!  I can’t even describe the elated feeling everyone felt and our hearts were filled with pride we felt for the kids!  The parents were cheering, whistling, clapping for the kids while the kids enjoyed it tremendously (well, that was what I thought until I was told that during the game, one kid said to the coach: can you ask the parents to stop yelling - it was really distracting)  But I guess we were just performing our duty as cheerleaders!  Charlie was playing defense the last few games, and he was developing well into his position and held his side quite well, and the entire offense and defense did a phenomenal job too.  When the Brick team tied up 4-4 on a fastbreak, we were curious how the kids would react to a different situation - leading the game but got caught up.  We were not disappointed - the kids simply went one-up again moments later!  Soon after, the score was fixed at 5-4 and the kids and the parents went wild at the ending whistle!  What a game! The kids showed an unwavering will to win, unparalleled fighting spirit, and incredible poise to defeat a really good team despite moments of adversity and nailbiting lead changes.  With this second win and the knowledge that the Brick team beat our 3rd opponent 6-1, we knew the kids are almost assured of going into the final if they kept up the playing.

But, after the game, one thing got me concerned - Charlie was obviously limping.  He might have twisted his ankle a bit, and one shot he blocked hit his hand and hurt him for a while.  We went to buy some sports tapes and taped up his left ankle.  It helped a little, but how well would it work for the noon game is completely unknown.  We can only hope that it holds up well.

Our 2nd game Saturday started at 11:55 am.  Charlie was mouthing “It hurts” through glass when I signaled my concern about his ankle.  I began to worry, both for Charlie and for the game.  I almost wanted to suggest to the coach to pull Charlie off, but I held my tongue - being overly protective is not the best thing a parent should do for a kid.  Knowing that the ankle did not swell and the skating boot would help the situation, and that the coach knew that his ankle hurt, playing through a bit pain should not hurt Charlie much.  He was in fact, much spirited in the game.  Not only did he hold up his side well, he even dived a couple times to get the puck, something he rarely ever did.  It was such a great feeling seeing him trying hard and having fun, and making ALL the smart decisions defending.  He played an absolutely perfect game except for one puck that eluded him possibly due to an uneven spot near the board that made the puck jump up, not exactly his fault.  His teammates, in the meantime, continued the dominating offense and airtight defense, as well as the fighting spirit.  Even though our team was behind 0-1 early into the game, no one panicked at all.  The kids just kept on attacking, and it actually took a surprisingly long time before they tied the game 1-1.  Then it’s all Princeton.  Soon it was 2-1 on another beautiful play, then 3-1, then 4-1.  The Bridgewater club got a goal in the waning seconds, but it was too little too late.  As the final buzzer sounded, the kids went absolutely ecstatic, as were the parents!  What a huge turnaround!  A few weeks earlier, we would’ve exited the tournament with 3 good opponents with a 0-3 record, but now the kids marched into the championship game being the only undefeated team in the division!  No matter what happens tomorrow, the kids already proved that they’re the best in my book!  Congratulations, Matt, David, Ben, Frank, Ryan, Logan, Chandler, Kyle, Sam, Sierra, Ben, Anish, Chris, Henry and Charlie!

Still, they need to stay focused and get this last win they need in the tournament.  Stay tuned …

BTW, Charlie’s ankle went worse after the 2nd game and he was limping badly.  But it did not swell much and he recovered reasonably well after a pizza party celebration. :)  Well, the reality was that his ankle improved after a lot of resting.  I hope it won’t bother him much tomorrow!