We would be out in the morning and again in the afternoon. People in the neighborhood would walk by and say hello. Usually little kids would pause and watch for a bit. We are in a quiet dead end street. But parallel to that is a thoroughfare street where most vehicles come in and out of our community. We noticed that cars passing by there would slow down to see what we were doing. I guess hockey is still a pretty rare sight for most people.
By that parallel street, there is a house at the corner where another kid lives. I only saw him one time around Thanksgiving 2019. I went out to throw the garbage and noticed a couple of kids throwing the football around. Then one of them left and the other one went inside. I thought he might have been around Rusty's age and I wondered if maybe they could be friends one day.
This spring on one of the first few days Rusty and I were out, I noticed the dad come out of the house and look over at us, smiling. I wanted to wave, but he had already moved on to go somewhere. A few days later, while we were out, we saw their garage open and the dad bring out a basketball hoop. The kid came out to play with him, and he was pretty good.
Rusty was done with his school work early, so we were out most of the day. But everyday around four in the afternoon, the neighbor dad and his kid would come out and shoot hoops. Rusty and I were training for hockey, and they were doing drills for basketball. Once in a while, Rusty would stop and stare at them. Once in a while, the kid would stop and stare at us. Eventually, we would wave at them and they would wave back.
Rusty was moving up to Pee Wee, but two of our defensemen were staying back at second year Squirt, so we figured there would be a need for defense. We prepared Rusty to change positions from forward. One of the things we worked on was shooting hard from the top of the circle.
And Rusty's shot did get better. And the pucks would travel far. And when he missed, they would go all the way to the front of the neighbor boy's house. We would come over to pick them up, and they would say hello and we would say hello. Later on when our rollerblades came, we would skate by there, exchange pleasantries, have small talk and then move on. And then we introduced each other and learned his name was Rocky, and the dad was like, oh their names are very close.
Anyways, we interacted like that through most of the summer. I could see Rusty looking over there with interest, and Rocky was looking over here just as curious. But with Covid, I didn't want to be so bold and suggest for them to get together, especially as I noticed their grandpa would come visit them once in a while. (We don't have family around, so our concern is mostly about potentially spreading the virus to other people.)
One late afternoon in August, one of our other neighbors was walking around looking concerned so I asked what the matter was. He said he was looking for some kids who were throwing water balloons. Once he left, I walked over to Rocky and his dad Sam and asked if they saw something. They said no. And then casually, Sam just asked if Rusty wanted to train with them sometime. I asked Rusty, and he was pretty excited about it.
The next day, Rusty and I were out for a morning run. We were a little surprised to see that Sam and Rocky were out also because it was rare for them to be out so early at that time. When we ran by, Sam told us they had a Zoom training with their basketball team in a few minutes. I asked Rusty if he wanted to finish the run or stay, and of course, he decided to stay. So he trained with them, and he was not that great at basketball, but Sam and Rocky were patient. They then asked if Rocky could run with us sometime.
And that's how Rusty and Rocky became training partners. In the morning, Rusty would come over to their house for basketball drills. After a lunch break and some time to digest, Rocky would come over to run with us. I would put them through conditioning and ladder drills. Sam and I would exchange training tips. One thing they told us is to try ice baths. We didn't have ice, so I just got Rusty to take cold baths. It's supposed to help with recovery, and he says he does feel better after.
I could never get Rocky to try hockey though. He wouldn't even put on a pair of in line skates. He has two older brothers, Colt and Tom, and usually in the afternoons they would ride their scooters around the neighborhood while Rusty was doing hockey at home. Rocky would then come over after to play. Usually they would just play catch with the baseball. Sometimes I would let Rusty cut his training short so they could play together more. It was still a long way before the season started, and it was just nice for him to have a friend he could see regularly.
Rusty did improve at basketball. He still wouldn't be able to make Rocky's team, but it was still better than how he used to play earlier in the year. (He was at the park before quarantine started, and the kids who were there had this look on their face like they were wondering if he was trying to hustle them or something. They were nice enough not to laugh though.) And we got Rocky to go from his initial one mile run all the way to doing a 5K, which is three miles.
Once fall came, Rocky started having basketball games. Rusty started having hockey practice, and he was also on his school's Cross Country team. We didn't have our regular two a days anymore, but they would still shoot some hoops once in a while. Or Rocky would simply come over and they would play video games on their phones while sitting outside. They haven't been inside each other's houses yet, just to be safe, and now that it's really cold out, they haven't sat and played games together in a while.
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I did like that experience though. Rusty had more fun with a training partner. And they both did get better.
Around the summer and fall also, Rusty got closer with this girl Delilah from the Hockey In New Jersey program. She was into skateboarding, and Rusty decided to try it also. Once she found out he was training for cross country, she decided to try running with us. We went to skate parks with her and her family, and they came over to our place for a Nerf war and some street hockey.
Once ice hockey got going, she got busy with her own team. But we would go to public skate together when we can. Her little brother plays hockey also so along with Dusty, there would be four kids skating around and chasing each other at the rink. And the parents would just glide slowly by.
When things got shut down in December, Delilah asked if Rusty could join her in an invite only coaching session. There was room for a couple more kids, and she asked another friend to join. I asked the fastest and quietest kid on our team, Samson, if he was interested in coming along. The other kid couldn't make it, but Rusty, Delilah and Samson were able to train together through December. I think I mentioned this in another post, but the three of them were so focused together that it was kind of mesmerizing to watch on LiveBarn. Even though Rusty and Delilah were close and talked a lot, on the ice it was just all business and no nonsense. Rusty and Samson were teammates and had gotten close as well and they would talk to each other in the car, but not during hockey. It was quite amazing actually.
Samson is super focused at their practices. He's always first to line up when coach says, "Take a drink and meet me at the board." He would be there on one knee already while the others are still fooling around. When I give him tips and advice, he would stop whatever he is doing to listen. He could be tying his skates or something, but he would just pause and take it in. And then he would just simply say, "Thank you." One time, he, Rusty and Ernie were playing games on their phone together, and I said some hockey thing to them. The other two were still goofing off, but only Samson paused to listen. He even had a follow up question.
He is basically a coach's dream, and I'm glad he decided to come along and train with Rusty. Now Rusty is trying to be like him more. These days, it's the two of them there first on one knee at the board in front of their coach. And they are usually the two fastest kids when the team skates across the ice or is asked to do suicides. (It's possible there are a couple of kids who could be faster, but Rusty and Samson are the ones giving the consistent effort not to get beat.) Hopefully they can keep making each other better.
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One other thing that Rusty and Rocky did throughout the summer was make videos. I am in media, as you may know by now, and I helped them make some fun videos together. Colt and Tom are planning to study media and video production as well, and the other day, Rusty and Rocky helped as production assistants.
Sam told us that he, his wife Jessica and the boys tried snowboarding. He asked if we would like to try it sometime, and well, after years of saying no and not wanting to, I said yes. I just know I would like it, and if I like it, then I'm gonna have to keep doing it. But Rusty's teammates Samson, Ernie, Bert and others all go skiing and snowboarding, and I can feel he is curious if not even envious about the experience. So we're gonna have to try snowboarding now. And skiing, too, I guess. And Dusty's gonna tag along. And we're gonna like it. And we're gonna keep doing it. And we're gonna suck at first, but we will probably train and get better at it.
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