Today was Garrett’s first day of Hockey Camp.  And he had a ball.

Dan Sullivan of the Gwinnett Gladiators, and some other area “hockey-types” have been putting together a new camp at the Duluth Ice Forum.  Dan approached us last week and asked if Garrett might like to try a “big-guy” hockey camp… most of the participants are past the Cross-Ice stage, and are competitive players.  Garrett’s answer was a resounding YES.

So, this morning I loaded him and his gear up for the trek to the Ice Forum.  He was suited up and on the ice for the 9:00 Power Skating session.  Over the course of the day he had three hours of ice time, including the Power Skating, Puck Handling and a one hour game.  In all the kids are there from 8:30 until around 4:30.  They get a breakfast snack, mid morning snack and a lunch.

I left Garrett with the staff in order to go about my day… after watching a little of the Power Skating.  The coaches were really working the kids.  I noticed that they were able to spend time with just about every kid during each exercise… the bigger guys were getting pointers while the smaller guys were getting reminders of what they were supposed to be doing.

Around 3:30 I came back to watch some of the game.  It was excellent.  Basically, each team had three lines… big guys, medium guys and small guys… and they played against kids their own size.  They would play in short shifts and a couple of coaches were on the ice with them… and even a ref to make it feel official.

Coming home, Garrett told me all about his day.  And he told me how much fun he had.  He said that he wanted to be in camp all summer…

The camp runs this week and then there is another week August 3rd-7th.  We will be trying to arrange it for Garrett to make it to the August camp as well.

If you might have a kid interested in this, keep eyes here for contact info or feel free to contact me.  I’ll put you in touch with the right folks.