To each and all of you, shine on.
I covered Huskies hockey for The StarPhoenix for seven years.
Watching you players play and hearing you coaches coach and seeing the hours you trainers and support staff spent doing your stuff was an education for me.
Fridays and Saturdays were game days. I liked going to Rutherford Rink on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for practice: No scoreboard. No ref. No intermission. I’d stand halfway up those steps near the bench, never open my notebook and watch, listen and learn
I learned the strength of a team is deeper than the skill of its players.
I learned the leader is not a person, it’s a standard. It’s respect and responsibility, persistence and effort, delegation and trust.
Hearing you talk with each other on the ice during a game told me the value of communication.
I saw the way you’d react to a mistake you made. I saw the way you’d react to a mistake a teammate made. That taught me a lot.
Yes, these are yesterday experiences. But they’re with me every day.
Bob Florence
Image of iconic player gate at Rutherford Rink.
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