Body Check

by Matt Christopher

Brent felt somewhat better but not completely. “But what about the new coach?”

  Coach Maxwell said, “That’s for me to take care of. All you need to remember is that I’m the head coach, and I set the policy. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Brent replied, hoping it was so.

  The coach grinned. “In that case, let’s get to work. We’ve got a lot to do.”

  From the moment he walked into the locker room, it was clear to Brent that there was some tension between the players. During the stretches, it seemed like boys got into groups that weren’t the same as the old groups. For example, Brent and Cam would have been staying together, but now Brent was with a bunch of players that included Ted, Sandy, and Arno. Cam hung with Vic, Gavin, and Burt.

  Also, there wasn’t much friendly exchange and joking between the groups, which had always been a habit in the locker room.

  During warm-ups, Brent saw the two coaches talking together just off the ice. It didn’t seem like a casual conversation, as far as Brent could tell. He reminded himself of what Coach Maxwell had said: he was the head coach and Coach Seabrook was the assistant.

  During the skatearound, Brent saw Sandy stumble and almost fall. He recovered his balance and looked around angrily. He saw Cam and Vic skating together, not far away, and glared at them.

  “That’s not funny,” he said. “Cut it out!”

  “Cut what out?” Cam said while Vic snickered. “Don’t blame me just because you can’t stay on your feet!”

  Sandy muttered something under his breath while Cam and Vic grinned at each other. Sandy said something to Ted, who nodded and gave Cam a dirty look, which Cam returned. Brent wondered whether Coach Maxwell was aware of what was going on. He hoped so and wished that the coach would do something about it.

  Once the skatearound was finished, Coach Maxwell called the team together. He stood next to Coach Seabrook in front of the players, looking at each boy in turn, saying nothing. It seemed like endless time passed before he finally spoke.

  “Each year, when the Badgers have their first meeting, I give a speech. Basically, it’s the same speech every time. I say that one of my jobs as coach is to teach techniques and skills that make good hockey players. Another job is to tell kids about strategies and tactics you’ll need to compete.

  “The third, and most important job — to me — is to show you what it is to be part of a team and get you to see how a team sport can help you go from being kids to young men. As you grow up, you’ll find that you’re part of many groups: not just teams but clubs, classes, work crews, families, and so on. I really believe that team sports can help you prepare to work with those different groups later in life. For most of what you’ll do as adults, winning — being number one — isn’t what matters.

  “Chances are that none of you will be a pro athlete. Most of you won’t want to be. You’ll get jobs, have careers, families, and so forth. And I really urge you not to make being number one your yardstick for measuring success or failure. There’s very little room for number ones, and if you see anything less as a failure, then you may wind up leading an unhappy life. The fact is that you can be happy and satisfied with your life even if you’re not number one. And when you play a sport, win or lose, if you do your best, you should enjoy it. That’s what it should be about.

  “As long as I’m coaching this team, I want you to see yourselves as a team. To play together, respect each other, and finish each game and each season feeling that you gave it your best shot, and that this made for a successful season. I hope you all see it that way. I don’t want to see any fighting, arguing, or bad feelings among team members.

  “Okay, enough. Let’s go to work.”

  Brent loved what the coach had said. He and several other players nodded, and there was some hand clapping afterward. But some of the Badgers, he noticed, didn’t react at all. Of course, silence was also a reaction.

  Coach Seabrook cleared his throat. “Uh, can I add something?”

  “Of course,” said Coach Maxwell.

  The other coach stepped forward and smiled. Brent didn’t know why this man’s smile made him uncomfortable, but it did.

  “I applaud what Coach Maxwell had to say,” said the other man. “You’re lucky to have him here. I can’t think of a single thing to disagree with in his talk.

  “The only thing I’d like to add is that ‘winning’ isn’t a terrible thing. Sure, when you don’t win a game, it shouldn’t make you feel ashamed. But, personally, I always felt better when I won than when I lost. I think this team can win. And that’s what I’m here to help you boys do. That’s why Coach Maxwell and I work together so well. I’ll be concentrating on one thing while he’s working on another. Between us, we’ll not only make you a team, but we’ll make you a winning team!”

  “All right!” Cam said, clapping. He and Vic gave each other high-fives, and a few other players nodded, clapped, and looked excited by what Coach Seabrook said.

  Brent sat silently. He couldn’t be sure, but he guessed that Coach Maxwell didn’t like it either. Coach Seabrook hadn’t come out and said that he thought the other coach was wrong, but it was clear that he felt that way —and so it seemed did some of Brent’s teammates.

  Coach Maxwell said, “Okay, let’s start with a few drills. We’ll begin by working on our backhand passing and shooting.”

  He arranged two nets across from each other midway between the blue line and the end boards. “Chip, you take the goal on this side,” he said, pointing to one of the nets. “Max, get in goal on the other side. The point of this drill is to use your backhand. You’ll use only your backhand to pass and to shoot. We’ll play three-on-three. We may as well practice ‘changing on the fly’ while we do this drill.”

  Ice hockey demands such all-out energy that even professionals can only go full-strength for a minute or so. This often means that players must substitute for teammates without stopping the action, which is called changing on the fly. A group of players hustles off the ice to the bench while fresh players swing over the boards into the game. It has to be done with lightning speed. If the subs go in too slowly, the opposing team may get a chance at an easy goal. But if the subs get on before the other players are off, an official will penalize the team for having too many men on the ice, and someone will spend two minutes in the penalty box. Teams practice changing on the fly to get the timing down perfectly.

  Coach Maxwell split the Badgers into two squads. The squad members who didn’t start the drill sat on the sidelines, ready to come in whenever the coach blew his whistle. Coach Seabrook was in charge of one squad, and Coach Maxwell took the other one himself.

  “You guys on the bench, when the coach calls your name, be ready to change on the fly. Remember, all your passes and shots have to be backhand for this drill. Ready?”

  The coach gave the puck to Brent’s squad to start, and then he blew the whistle. Brent was on the ice with Ted and Arno. Their goalie was Chip. Opposing them were Cam, Gavin, and Sandy, with Max in goal. Ted sent a pass to Brent, but his backhand was weak, and Gavin intercepted. He had a better backhand and shot a pass over to Cam, who advanced on Chip. Chip came out to cut down Cam’s shooting angle, but Cam passed to his right, where Sandy received it. Sandy passed back to Gavin, but…

  The whistle stopped play. “Backhand passes only,” Coach Maxwell said.

  “Sorry, I just forgot,” said Sandy, looking sheepish.

  “That’s okay, pick it up from there,” said the coach. Sandy passed to Cam, who tried a backhand shot that Chip stopped with a glove save. He dropped the puck and backhanded it to Arno. Arno saw Brent headed toward the other goal and passed to him. Noticing Ted coming up alongside, Brent got him the puck, and Ted fired a shot that skimmed under Max’s stick for a goal.

  “Real nice save, Max,” muttered Cam. Brent heard Cam, but he thought that nobody else had. Still, he was upset by Cam’s comment. What was going on with his old friend?

  Max hooked the puck out of the net and flipped
it to Cam. But before a play could get going, the whistle sounded.

  “Change!” yelled Coach Maxwell to his squad. Brent, Arno, and Ted raced for the sidelines and, as they scrambled over the boards, their three replacements moved in hurriedly to keep the other squad from scoring. But Coach Seabrook blew his whistle before a scoring attempt could be made.

  “Change!” he called out. Cam, Sandy, and Gavin skated hard for the boards as three substitutes jumped to the ice… a little before the first three had gotten off.

  Brent poked Arno in the side. “Those guys got on too soon. That was a foul!”

  Arno laughed, but there wasn’t any pleasure in the sound. “Are you surprised?” he asked. “The new coach must have told them to jump the gun a little. That’s another way to be winners, didn’t you know?”

  Brent looked at Arno in surprise. It wasn’t like the old Arno to sound so unhappy and angry. He looked at Brent and said, “Don’t tell anyone yet, but I think I may quit the team. I don’t need this stuff.”

  “Whoa.” Brent basically liked Arno, and he didn’t like the idea of losing him. “Don’t do anything yet. Coach Maxwell won’t let this happen. You have to trust him.”

  Arno said, “Maybe it won’t be up to him. You can see that some guys like this thing about being winners, no matter what. And so do some of their parents.”

  “How do you know?” Brent asked.

  “When I talked to my dad about this new coach last night, he said he’d call some other parents. He was sure that they’d be as angry as he was,” Arno answered. “Later I asked what happened when he called them, but he didn’t want to talk about it. Why wouldn’t he talk about it if they felt like he did? I think they like the new coach.”

  Brent suddenly felt like he couldn’t be sure of anything anymore. Somehow, he’d felt that Coach Maxwell would always be able to stay in charge, that he would find a way.

  But maybe this story wouldn’t have a happy ending.

  9

  For the moment, Brent thought, he was part of the team, and the Badgers were going to play the Cyclones in a couple of days. The Cyclones were tough, so he knew he had to try to forget everything that might distract him and focus on playing hockey.

  “All right, you sharpshooters,” said Coach Maxwell, “let’s see how accurate your shooting really is.” He skated to the side of the rink and brought back three pieces of cloth called “shooter tutors.” The coach and two players used bungee cords to attach the cloths to the goals they’d used for the backhand drill and another goal at the far end of the ice. The cloths covered the goalmouths completely and were designed with five circular holes. The holes were located near the four corners of the goals, with the fifth hole in the middle, eight inches above the ice.

  “You know how this goes,” said Coach Maxwell. “I divide the team into three groups. Each group has a puck, and you line up. The first player passes to the one behind him, and that player has to shoot, aiming at any of the five holes. Those holes represent the best areas to score: the corners of the net and low in the middle. The group gets two points for each puck that goes through a hole. If you miss your shot, pass the puck back to the next guy in line, and he shoots right away off the pass. If you make the shot, get the puck and pass it back in the same way. The group with the most points after two minutes wins. I’ll keep score for one group, Coach Seabrook will do the second, and, since we’re not using a goalie, Chip can keep score for the third group. Line up!”

  Brent enjoyed this drill, even though he wasn’t one of the best shooters on the team. And he was relieved to have something to do that would take his mind off the problems threatening the team.

  He was in the same group as Vic, who was directly in front of him. When Vic’s turn came to shoot, Brent wasn’t surprised to see that Vic was barely able to hit the goalmouth, let alone put the puck in one of the holes. Then he seemed to take forever getting the puck back onto his stick. Finally he managed to send a weak pass in Brent’s direction.

  Brent fired a shot that caught the edge of the lower left hole and tumbled into the cage for 2 points. “Good goal!” shouted Chip, who was scoring for Brent’s squad.

  As Brent hooked the puck out of the goal with his stick, Sandy caught his eye and called out, “Nice shot!”

  Brent nodded in response and sent a pass back to Burt, who was next in line. When Brent got another shot opportunity, he aimed for the center hole but missed when his shot went high. At the end of two minutes, Coach Maxwell blew his whistle again. “Time!” he called. “This group has eighteen points.”

  “Sixteen points here,” said Coach Seabrook.

  “Sixteen here, too,” said Chip.

  “One more time, same squads,” said Coach Maxwell. “Remember, when you try flip shots, get the toe of your stick right under the puck and put your wrists into it. Okay?”

  He blew his whistle. Brent took a pass from Vic and tried a flip shot at the upper right hole. Remembering the coach’s advice, he really gave it everything he had with his wrists — and the puck sailed completely over the net. As he raced to retrieve the puck, he heard someone snicker behind him and say, “Brilliant shot.”

  It was Vic.

  Furious, Brent whirled around and glared at Vic, who smirked back at him.

  “The clock’s running, Brent,” Chip said quietly. Brent took a deep breath and went to get the puck. He knew he’d almost lost it, and that would have been bad news. Instead, he flicked a pass to Burt, who fired a shot into the middle hole.

  “Good one,” he said as Burt went by.

  “Thanks, dude. Chill out,” murmured Burt.

  When Brent’s turn came again, Vic’s pass was way off to the side. Brent lunged after the puck, got it under control, took a deep breath, and shot it into the lower right hole for 2 points. Yes! he said to himself, retrieving the rubber disk and sending it to Burt again.

  When Burt got behind him in the line, he tapped Brent’s shoulder. “Don’t let that creep get to you,” he said in a low voice. “That’s just what he wants to happen.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Brent said. “Thanks.”

  After the second round, Coach Maxwell clapped his hands. “The point total was up that time,” he said. “Twenty-four each for two squads and twenty-two for the other one. In other words, you shot better. Way to go.

  “Let’s work on our bodychecking. There’s a lot of hard physical contact in hockey, but we have to make sure we know the difference between clean, legal checks and the kind that send you to the penalty box.”

  Coach Maxwell set up a line of traffic cones between one of the blue lines and the line along the goalmouth, twenty feet from the boards. He moved the goal from its normal position so that it was midway between the line of cones and the side of the rink, and then he put another goal on the blue line, facing the first one. The result was a long, narrow playing area, twenty feet wide and sixty feet long. The players stared; this drill was new to them.

  “We’ll play two-on-two between these goals,” the coach said. “You play for a minute and a half, then I blow the whistle and send in two new players on each side for a new matchup. The object is to score goals and to keep the opponents from scoring with legal body checks. Legal is the key word. No high sticks, no checks into someone’s back, no elbows, and so on. Your team gets two points for each legal body check and loses two points for each illegal one. You also get a point for every goal. In this drill, solid checks count for more than goals. Coach Seabrook will keep score, and I’ll officiate. Questions? Okay, Ted and Burt will start on my left, and Sandy and Cam, on my right. Sandy, Ted, get set for a face-off.”

  Coach Maxwell dropped the puck between Sandy and Ted. Ted’s reflexes were a little quicker. He flicked the disk back to Burt, but Cam hit Burt hard with his upper body and knocked him away from the puck.

  “Good check! Two points!” called Coach Maxwell. Cam got to the loose puck and swung his stick back for a shot, but before he could connect, Burt crunched him. “Good chec
k the other way!”

  A moment later, Cam came into Ted hard, but Ted had been moving away from him, so Cam ended up hitting Ted in the back, knocking him forward.

  “No!” called Coach Maxwell. “In the back! Two points off, Cam.”

  Cam rolled his eyes and looked angry but said nothing. He knew that his hit had been illegal. A few seconds later, Burt got penalized 2 points for hitting Cam with his elbows and stick raised.

  Brent had thought that there’d be lots of goals, but then he saw that the narrow playing area made scoring more difficult. Just before the ninety seconds ended, Cam managed to snap a pass to Sandy, who put the puck through the unguarded net for a 1-point goal. After the final whistle, Cam and Sandy had 9 points and Ted and Burt had 6.

  Now it was Brent’s turn. He was teamed with Gavin, against Vic and Gil. Brent faced off against Gil and got control of the puck. Vic came forward at him, but Brent veered sharply to his left. Vic couldn’t swing around quickly enough, and Brent saw Gavin open on his left. He dropped a backhand pass to his teammate, who appeared to have an easy shot in front of him. But Gil lunged ahead, got himself between Gavin and the net, and swung his body into Gavin so that Gavin couldn’t keep the puck on his stick. It was a nice check, good for 2 points.

  Brent raced after the puck, but it went past the line of cones, out of bounds. The coach whistled play to a stop, got the puck back, and set up another face-off. This time, it was Gil who swept it away from Brent’s stick. Just as Gil controlled the puck, Brent was jolted hard from just behind his right shoulder, and he stumbled forward.

  “Two-point deduction for a block in the back!” called Coach Maxwell. “Vic, you have to watch out for those.”

  Brent heard Vic mutter “This is really dumb” as Vic got the loose disk and moved forward toward the net. Brent got in front of him and forced the chunky, slower boy toward the side. Vic lost the puck and hit the boards with a grunt.

  “Two points!” the coach shouted. “Nice check, Brent!”

  Vic swung around to face Coach Maxwell. “How come he gets two points and I lose two points?” he whined.