Welcome to the home of the Blizzard Peewee A team! We're seventeen 11- and 12-year-olds, two coaches who haven't slept since 1997, and a whole lot of parents with frozen feet and travel mugs. This page is where we put the schedule, the roster, the who-brings-what, and anything else the team needs to know, so nobody has to call the manager at 10:30 at night. (Please don't call the manager at 10:30 at night.)

We're Shaun and Stephanie Janicki. Our son Jarrett plays left wing. Shaun is a sheet metal worker and the team's assistant coach, and Stephanie manages a dental office and the team, which some days are the same job. This is Jarrett's fifth year of travel hockey and our fifth year of getting up at 4:45 in the morning, and we wouldn't trade it.

TRYOUTS ARE OVER!
Thirty-one kids skated at tryouts the first two weekends of September for seventeen spots. Coach Joe and two coaches from other levels did the evaluations, and the team was posted on the rink bulletin board on Sunday the 12th. Congratulations to everybody who made it, and to every kid who tried out, because skating in front of evaluators with clipboards when you're 11 is harder than anything we parents did that week. Nine of this year's players were on last year's Peewee B team, five are first-year Peewees moving up from Squirts, and three are new to the Blizzard. Welcome to the new families! You'll be experts on rink coffee by Thanksgiving.

THE BIG NEWS: CHECKING
Peewee is the first level where body checking is allowed, and it's the thing every parent is nervous about and every kid can't wait for. Coach Joe has taught checking for nine years and here's how he does it, so you know what to expect:

• Receiving a check comes first. Before anybody hits anybody, they learn how to take one: knees bent, head up, stick down, eyes on the play, and get to the boards the right way, at an angle, not face-first.
• Angling. Most "checking" in good hockey is really angling, skating the puck carrier off toward the boards so he runs out of room. They work on this every practice.
• Then contact, slowly. Partner drills at half speed along the boards, then three-quarter speed. Full speed only when the coaches are sure everybody's ready.
• Never from behind, never at the head. Checking from behind is a major penalty, and on this team you'll be on the bench before the ref even blows the whistle. Coach Joe means it.
• The point is the puck. You separate the player from the puck. You are not trying to hurt anybody. A kid who goes headhunting sits.

Also: mouthguards at every practice and every game, and chinstraps snug. Your kid's helmet should have the cage on tight and the clips all there. If it's two seasons old, check it.

THE 5:30 CLUB
Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 5:30 to 6:30, Rink 2. That means skates on at 5:20, which means in the door by 5:05, which means leaving the house at 4:45, which means the alarm at 4:30. Kids sleep in the car on the way and eat breakfast in the car on the way to school. Shaun says the ice is never better than first thing in the morning, before anybody's chopped it up. He also says he's never been more tired. Both true. The dads' coffee rotation is on the parents page.

OVER THE BRIDGE: OUR JANUARY TOURNAMENT
This year's big trip is a Peewee A tournament in Ontario, Friday, January 14, to Sunday, January 16. Sixteen teams from both sides of the border, four games guaranteed, and a hotel with a pool, which is all the kids care about. The drive is under two hours if the Peace Bridge isn't backed up.

For the border: every player needs a copy of his or her birth certificate (bring the real one or a certified copy, not a photocopy) and every adult needs a birth certificate and a photo ID. If your child is riding with another family, or only one parent is going, bring a signed letter from the parent who isn't there saying it's OK. Customs does ask, and Stephanie will have a form letter you can use. Hotel deposits ($50) to Wendy Killion by November 15.

WHAT IT COSTS (deep breath)

Plus skates, plus sharpening, plus gas, plus hotels, plus the vending machine. We know. Here's how we bring it down. Last year the fundraising knocked $410 off every family's bill:

• The 50/50 at every home game. Half to the winner, half to the team. See the parents page for how it works. Margaret Wilks runs it.
• Can and bottle drive the first Saturday of every month. Five cents a can adds up faster than you'd think when every family brings two garbage bags.
• Wing and pizza night in November at a pizzeria that shall remain our secret till the flyers are printed. Emily Saul is in charge.
• Christmas wreath sale. Order forms at the October 5 practice.

Payments: first installment $400 due at the first practice, then $350 on November 1, December 1 and January 1. Checks to the team, to Sharon. If money's tight, talk to Sharon or Stephanie, quietly. No kid on this team sits out because of money. We mean that.

PICTURES
Team picture day is October 16 before the home game. Wendy will have the order forms. Our camera is full of tryout pictures waiting to go to the drugstore, and if any of them come out not blurry we'll put a few up. (Hockey is very hard to photograph. Everything is moving and everybody is wearing the same thing.)