Hey CeeBees,
I’d like to take a minute to address our association before we head out to all corners of Newfoundland next week for our first Provincial Easter tournaments since April, 2019.
To our CeeBees parents and guardians, we wish you all the best during your travels, please drive safely, enjoy your time in hotels and rinks with your hockey friends and make new memories. Soak up the laughs, before you know it, it’ll be all over.
To our CeeBees coaches and volunteers, please be mindful that HNL’s fair play rules are an honour system. While having a competitive edge is expected and endorsed, we want you to please remember that every player wants to play. Give all your players a role and let them play it, because winning as a team is much more rewarding than winning at all costs. We’d also like to thank you for all you’ve given and continue to give to our kids and our association. Without your commitment and dedication our Ceebees can’t exist.
To our CeeBees players, Easter has always been the time of year when you and your teammates get to play and compete for Provincial Banners. After the last two seasons with no Provincials, you players definitely deserve this now, more than ever. So when you get the chance to sit in that dressing room over Easter break, and pull that CeeBees jersey down over your head, get out there and give your all, leave everything you have on the ice so when the final buzzer sounds, you’ll have no regrets. On the ice, respect your teammates, your coaches, your opponents and the officials. Off the ice, respect your parents/guardians, zamboni drivers, rink attendants, hotel staffs and anyone else you cross paths with. That’s how hockey players do it. That’s how the CeeBees do it! – “Respect All, Fear None”.
Lastly, to our graduates. You guys have been robbed of most of your midget careers. But on a bright note, you all get the chance to do what your older teammates last year didn’t get to do, you get to play and wear our colours one last time. Soak up this time guys, this is what you’ve been playing for since you started playing 12-14 years ago. Go out and play hard, wear your heart on your sleeve and lay it all on the line. When the final horn sounds, win or lose, it doesn’t really matter. When that horn sounds you’ll probably want to cry and feel sad, and wonder where all the time went. But please remember, when one chapter ends another one begins. We just hope that minor hockey has given you the tools needed to help you as you start your next chapter. When you all get a little older, get an education and settle down, we expect you all back to be future mentors and coaches and give back to the game that has given you so much. We can’t wait.
In closing, I’d like to share a quote I always used on my teams through the years. I still write it on a piece of hockey tape and stick it to the dressing room door anytime our players lose focus. The tape reads, “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going” Go get ‘em CeeBees!!
Good luck this Easter from your CeeBees Executive.
Brian
