Back from Johannesburg ice hockey tournament

It was quite an adventure for the boys and I. The boys have never been to Johannesburg or flown in a plane and by the sounds the team was making as we took off, I came to realise not many of the 48 Western Province team members have flown either. It was my first time in Johannesburg as well and like most have said, it is not the prettiest place but I was really impressed with the amount of friendly people we got to meet. The entire team and parents shared rooms at the same guest house and it was like being back in boarding school. My first night I had to share a room with six of the under 14 lads. I probably got about 2 hours sleep much more I can say than the boys got. All of them were so excited just to be travelling and then bunking with their friends that they kept each other up all night, playing pranks and just doing what boys do best, which is getting up to mischief. We had to be up at 04:30am everything morning to either be there for support or for playing a match. We started off really well but as the games progressed I came to the realisation that we need to create more practice time for our teams .All the boys played well and Gamad scored a goal for his team in one game. It made me so proud but it also made me think that we will have to find a solution to raise the standard of our game. Our ice time is so valuable and currently we only get to practice once every Sunday! This is simply not good enough. There are other times scheduled for ice hockey players but it is either really early or really late in the week day. Parents and guardians can not simply be there at 6am or 10pm at night! We will have to find another place or try and change the ice time schedules. We ended up coming home with silver in the bag but I am confident once training starts intensifying we will return with gold instead!