Slapshot

Chapter 2: Tryouts

Coach Jamie stares at me for a few seconds, nodding, then puts his salad down. "You see, Delaney, my boys love hockey with their lives, it's their favourite thing in the world, and all of them try so hard. If I can help you learn... will you always try your hardest, no matter what?" he asks me.

I nod. "Of course, coach."

He pauses, looking at a pad of paper in front of him, then looking back up at me. "I recognize you, I don't know why." he says.

I break out a big smile. "I used to be on the tennis team, you called me Terminating Taylor because I'd always win." I say.

The coach nods, smiling as well. "Yes, yes, I remember! Well in that case, I'd love to have you on my team! I'm sure the boys would love to help you out." he says, and I smile in relief. "But I'd still like it if you came to the tryout tonight, you don't have to play, just watch for now, and get a feel of the team." he says.

"Of course, Coach. I won't let you down." I say, happily walking out of his office.

Jonathan's POV

"Okay, gather round." I call, and everyone skates towards me. "So for our last drill, everyone's going to start at the blue line, and skate up. Tom's going to be waiting, and he'll pass you a puck, where you then will shoot it into the net. Simple enough, but I'm looking for technique, skill, and accuracy." I say, and I see a few people nodding. Once I'm done, everyone skates off to form a line behind the blue line.

Noah, our goalie, skates to his spot in the net. He was our backup goalie from last year, and this year he'd be playing full time. This was good news, because he was a really good goalie.

I take my spot against the boards, blowing my whistle to start the drill. I watched as the first player completed it. Unfortunately, we didn't have the great turnout that I thought we would. We only had 2 girls on ice, which was weird. One of them was amazing, and the other was good too. I guess girls wouldn't be a problem this year.

Other than the girls, we only had 6 guys come to the tryouts, one of them a goalie. Two were small freshman, but the others seemed to be fine in size. There wasn't anyone exceptional at the tryouts, except for the one girl. The others were decent. I guess it was them or nothing.

Halfway through the drill, we switched goalies to the new guy, James. He was okay, not amazing. He stopped a few shots, but everything else went in. Not an impressive tryout.

When we were done, Coach skated over to all of us and gathered us in the middle.

"Thank you to everyone who came, we appreciate it. Obviously we're short on players, and I like what I see, so everyone here will be making the team." Coach says, and a few people cheer. "We have a full team, which is great. I want everyone to get changed, then I'll give you more information outside." he says, and everyone begins to skate away, but I stay behind.

"What do you think?" Coach asks me.

"I think I would've preferred to see some talent." I sigh, and Coach does too.

"I know it sucks, Jon, but there's nothing we can do. Without these new guys, we wouldn't be able to play. They'll get better once we start having full team practices."

"But Coach, we're still one player short. We can't compete with only nineteen." I say, taking a seat on the bench with him.

"No, we're full. One player wasn't dressed." Coach says.

"What? Who?" I ask, surprised.

"Her." He says, pointing up to a blonde girl who was making her way towards us. I recognized her.