Kyle is one of the assistant coaches of our 13-year-old son’s Peewee hockey team.  This has been very good because the only thing Kyle loves more than hockey is coaching hockey.  He has known many of the kids on the team since they were little fellas and so he also loves seeing them develop in the game more and more each year.  For my part, I love how he looks in hockey warmup pants.

While Kyle is an enthusiastic guy, he has this funny habit where the more excited he is about something, the less excited he allows himself to seem.  I knew he was JACKED UP about coaching when he came into my office, leaned against the wall, and said in the most nonchalant of all nonchalant ways,

“I got asked to help out with coaching this year.”

“That’s very nice,” I said.  “Are you going to do it?”

“Yeah, probably,” Kyle sniffed, scrolling his phone in the most nonchalant way.  “You know, to help out.”

“Oh, for sure,” I said.

He managed to keep up that nonchalantness for three whole days before his true feelings shined through.

“I sure do like coaching,” he now says to me at least once a week.  For the past three months, he has watched back the video of every game and taken notes.  He’s gotten out of the house at the crack of dawn no matter what the scenario – over-scheduled, sick, tired, or with some physical ailment – because he would never miss a practice.  He has sat staring off into the distance at dinner, his food untouched, before saying something like,

“I need to have so-and-so get out of the neutral zone faster.”

Obviously, I have found this very endearing.

Speaking of endearing, one of the things Kyle likes about coaching are the silly things the players say and do on and off the ice.  While these boys are now in the throes of puberty they are still those same little guppies from the old days at heart.  For example, they were recently playing an intensely competitive game and, after much back and forth, scored.  They all immediately started hopping around, fist pumping, and high-fiving like a barrel of monkeys, so much so that they nearly knocked Kyle off of the bench.

Another time, it was the middle of a game, and the players were doing a lot of fancy-dancy zig-a-zig-ah-ing instead of getting the puck on the net.

“You guys aren’t good-looking enough to score pretty goals all the time,” Kyle told the bench.  “Get an ugly one.”

“Okay,” said one player.

“Okay,” said another player.

“I actually find myself quite handsome,” a third responded.

One more: the boys practice in a high school hockey rink.  One end of the ceiling of that rink is adorned with large banners of the graduating hockey players and figure skaters.  The boys prefer to stretch before practice on that particular end of the rink.

It was 6:00 in the morning, and so Kyle was leaning on his stick, aimlessly staring at the banners in lieu of aimlessly staring at the boys – specifically the two boys closest to him: our son and his friend, the team’s two goalies.

“Scouting for a new wife, Dad?” Our son asked.

“I’m not scouting out a new wife,” Kyle said.

“I’M scouting for a new wife,” the friend said.

For his part, Kyle’s role on the coaching staff is, apparently, Team Dad.  He has made it a habit to write things like, “Put the ‘D’ in Fun” or “I Heart Nickelback” on his white board before a game (he coaches the defense), eliciting a line of eye rolls.  Whenever he scores in practice, the kids shout, “Eeewww, gross.”  He wears a beaver fur hat to any cold rink games because the other dads think it’s hilarious.

Recently, the boys were in a contentious game with a Minnesota team where the refs allowed two goals with the net off, and a third where the circumstances were murky.  Between periods, the refs came over to our head coach to argue their reasoning for the goals, heating up Kyle to the point that he felt it best to walk away.  He walked towards the boys’ locker room; as he neared, he saw the coach of the opposing team open the door to the locker room and tell our kids to “Stop crying or whatever.”  Well, obviously, ol’ Kyle didn’t stand for that.  He gave the coach…what’s a nice way to say this?  a piece of his mind…and when he finished, he went into the locker room and the boys absolutely LOST THEIR MINDS – cheering, jumping up and down, the whole bit.

“What do you like best about coaching?”  I asked Kyle as I prepared to type these very words that I’m typing here.

“I like watching the kids succeed and having fun with them,” Kyle said without even a moment’s pause.

Which is exactly right.

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The photo above is of Coach Kyle and his beaver hat.

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This week on North Dakota Today we talked about Ray Iverson, Jr., my Nice Person of the Week, as well as a new space in Grand Forks for budding podcasters. (Valley News Live)

Fargo’s Hope Blooms is a non-profit which repurposes flowers from grocery stores and funeral homes and has just given away its 100,000th bouquet. (Fargo Forum)

Happy 108th birthday to Minot’s Ray Curtis! (Minot Daily News)

I was a guest on the North Dakota After Dark podcast. Did I say anything interesting? No. Did I tell Kyle to use it as a practice episode and delete it? Yes. Did he delete it? No. Am I sharing it anyways? Yes. (North Dakota After Dark)

The Grand Forks United Way is now the proud owner of two furnished apartment buildings for use as emergency shelters for families in need of a home – and bonus, this article has the nicest story of a family who moved in at Christmastime and was given a Christmas with all the trappings. (Grand Forks Herald)

Teachers: the ND Department of Ag is giving out gardening kits. (KFYR TV)

Live in Minot?  You can “rent” a baby chick.  You get three chicks to feed, water, and cuddle – and, in return, you get a dozen eggs. (KFYR TV)

Live in Grand Forks?  Own a snow removal apparatus of some kind, like a shovel or a broom?  You can adopt a fire hydrant! (Facebook)

Love dogs?  You can help foster one (or up to 25, I suppose) shepherd/corgi mixes in urgent need of homes. (Valley News Live)

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