Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
“So, never,” Kirby jokes with him. “I’ll take them.”
“I will have them packed and ready to go,” Knox agrees, and I laugh. When we pull into the building, I get up from my seat.
“I know you guys are probably wondering where we are.” I look at everyone. “I thought that instead of on-ice practice, we could do some team-building exercises.” I clap my hands and the door to the bus opens. “Let’s go, people.”
We get off the bus and walk into the building where two men are there waiting for us. “Welcome.” They look at us and wait for the team to get in the front door before talking. Eric comes and stands next to me. “We’re excited for you guys to start.” He looks at the guys. “Let’s go to the first activity.”
I follow him into the first room, which is set up with aluminum plates all scattered around four separate workspaces. “Okay, I want you guys divided into the lines,” I tell the guys as everyone gets in their respective lines.
“This is where you are going to see if you trust your team,” the associate says. “I want all the guys to put on a pair of goggles.” The other guy holds out a basket as he passes them to each player. “And the guy in charge is going to guide you through the pathway. If you step on the plates, you have to start back at the beginning.”
The guys all line up, the first line has Jaxon leading them. The second line has Owen leading them. I stand back and watch as Jaxon starts and they all line up. His team holds each other’s shoulders while the other team puts the players on their shoulders. “That’s interesting,” I say as they work their way through the playing field. Lots of laughter fills the room and lots of frustration when it takes one line over thirty-five minutes to make it through. Owen’s team is the second to last place and they hate it. Each of them points the finger to the next person.
The next activity has each team putting their feet on two planks of wood with ropes being tied to them. Each player holds the rope in each hand. “The team that gets over the finish line first wins,” he tells the group of guys. “Easiest drill.”
Jaxon’s team has him in the front. Owen’s team has him in the front, the two of them are side by side. The whistle blows and Owen shouts out for his team to go right first, which is fine because they all lift their right foot but don’t really go ahead, while Jaxon leads his team with instructions to lift the foot and move forward. They easily get to the front first with Owen behind him, and he’s pissed to be behind Jaxon.
“See the cracks in the foundation?” Eric leans over and whispers to me and I nod my head.
“A couple of them I do,” I confirm, watching Owen and the guys I found in the office with Cam stand to the side and talk amongst themselves.
By the time we get back on the bus, half the team is laughing while the other half of the team is unsure. “Might be time to rework some of those lines,” I tell Eric when we get back to the arena.
The next day I show up early, and the press is there already setting up. “Hey, Coach,” a couple of them say as I walk to my office then to the other room where the whiteboard is.
“Hey.” Cam walks into the room. “What are you doing?” he asks as I look at the board.
“Going to switch up the lines,” I reply, and he looks at the board with me.
“You think that is a wise decision?” he retorts and I look over at him.
“If you had come with us yesterday, you wouldn’t ask that question.”
“From what I heard, it was dumb and half the guys hated it.” He puts his hands in his pockets.
“Yeah, and who told you that?”
He shrugs. “Couple different people.”
“Well, you let those people know they should come to me if they have a problem, instead of adding fuel to the fire.” I turn back to the board.
He doesn’t say a word as he turns to walk back out of the office, and Eric comes in followed by Jaxon. “What’s up, Coach?” Jaxon asks when I start to erase names from different lines and switch them around.
“I’m playing with some lines,” I tell him and he looks at what I did. “Going to change just one player this game from each line and see how that goes, might change it back before the end of the game… depending.”
“Sounds good,” he says to me. “You going with us after the game?” I glare at him.