Jeff, I wanted to follow up with you.  Our first email exchange was about a year ago.  I’ll split this into the short and long version of the story.  Short version is he did Battle Camp in PA.  He had a great time and his play this year so far has been amazing.

The longer version…

My son was struggling on his squirt B team.  The season ended pretty rough.  His team won a championship, but by the end of the season his coach was regularly skipping him in the forward rotation.  In the playoffs he only got 1 shift in 4 of the 7 games and didn’t play a single shift in the championship clinching game.  Some of your articles had helped me understand how better to support him and he was ok with the situation, while not happy.  All the kids who didn’t move up to PW all made the AA team.  He was left on B.  We agreed that he would do camp over the summer.

He loved camp.  First thing he said at the end of the last day – “I am doing this again next year”.

So this year he’s on B again, playing D and getting lots of playing time.  The change in his game is remarkable.  He’s not even really sure how to play D yet, but he’s defending the slot, working the boards and generally being solid.  So far the team has been outscored 32-14, but he’s got an overall +1 rating.  His confidence is translating to leadership on the ice, helping the moved-up mites understand D and where he’ll go, and where they will go.

I don’t know how far the run will go, but I feel like he has a chance be a big contributor, to be confident and to have fun all the time.  I’m looking forward to seeing your 2013 camp schedule coming out.  We’ll be back for Battle or maybe a D camp.  And I’m letting everyone on the team how we got here.

Thanks so much.