GregKopp.com

As promised, here is the photo from the Tri-county Thanksgiving weekend tournament. The Cleveland Heights Peewee B team won the championship game. Click on the photo to get a larger view.

Back row: Coaches Kevin Deet, Dan Wakefield and Gary Gruehl
Middle row: Andrew Wakefield, Alex Wakefield, Tyler Rudy, Duncan Lang
Front Row: Joe Kopp, Daniel Counihan, Sawyer Opalich, Jake Deet, Alex Nemaltsev, Jimmy Liptow, Cyrus Apanius
Goalie: Aiden Hall

The Cleveland Heights Peewee 2 team was invited to play in the Tri-County Thanksgiving weekend tournament at the last minute. Another team had dropped out, and they needed to fill the spot.

A number of our players were out of town for the holidays, but the coach managed to pull together enough of the players along with a couple of the squirts to put together a team.

We never expected to get very far, but wouldn't you know it. These boys pulled it together and ended up winning thier division!

Tyler Rudy scored the winning goal with 12 seconds left to play in sudden death overtime! A very exiting game!

I hope to have a team photo up soon, as well as a "highlight" video of the championship game.

Go Heights!

I got the word today from Coach Dan Wakefield of the Cleveland Heights Pee Wee 2 team. After Joe's performance at the two games this past weekend, he wants Joe to stay on the team. He has a lot to learn, but he wasn't timid and wasn't hiding. He took a few hits and gave a few, which was great to see. I am very proud of him!

Joe's first two games were yesterday and today. In the first game versus Columbus, he took a few and gave a few hits. Played his position OK (he has a lot to learn) but wasn't afraid and didn't hide.

He had to leave the game midway through the third period when he hit his knee on the ice. His shin guards were OK for squirt, but not Pee Wee. Other than that, he did fine.

The second game he played the whole game. We left the house early and bought him a new pair of shin guards and elbow guards. These will protect him very well.

The Pee Wee practices went well. We're going to let Joe play on the Pee Wee team. The CSHL rules state that once a player has played in 3 games in the higher division, that the change is permanent. Until then he can go back down. He has 2 games, one on the 24th and one on the 25th. If they go well, we're going to make it permanent.

The coaches will let us know if they continue to have faith in Joe as we all do now. Once he gets into a game situation, he or any of us could change our minds.

The Pee Wee #2 coach asked me today if Joe would be interrested in playing up a division. Squirt players are kids born in 1995 and 1996, where Pee Wee players are born in 1993 and 1994. Since Joe's birthday is so late in the year, he could end up playing with kids 2+ years older and twice his size.

We've decided to let him practice with the Pee Wee's so the coaches can further evaluate him and we can better see if he would be better off playing up or staying where he is.

Well, tryouts are over and Joe has been selected to be on the Squirt #2 team. There are 14 skaters plus the goalie, so we should have a nice deep bench. Practices start soon!

Hockey tryouts begin this week. My son Joe will have 3 different tryout sessions to determine which team he will end up on. I know he's a good enough skater to be on the #1 team, but will the coaches notice. Only time will tell. Either way, it'll be a fun year. I'm a certified coach now, so I can help out with practices.

I went to Pittsburgh Saturday and again on Sunday to obtain my USA Hockey Level 2 Associate coaching certificate. Now that I am certified (or is that certifiable?) I can be on the ice durring practices with Joe's hockey team.

Well, youth hockey, anyway. Pickup hockey has started again at the Cleveland Heights rink. I take my son Joe up there as much as I can so he can keep his skating skills sharp. One of the other parents and I are going to join them next week on the ice. So this weekend I bought a pair of gloves and shin guards today along with a new stick. Uhg. What was I thinking?