STRATHROY'S FUTURE PRO GOALIE CAMP: T Plus 1

Day one of the Future Pro Goalie Camp was everything that we had hoped.  Four hours of hard, solid drills on the ice interspersed with footwork and skating at the beginning and the end of every session block.  Steve “Keeks” Mckichan and the instructors have done well to reward all the participants with little games near the end of most of the sessions as little rewards to groups that have worked hard.

The goalies are from all over.  Strathroy is a small community (approximately 20,000 people) so it couldn’t support several weeks of high-end goalie camps.  The large bulk of the goalies are from the outlying regions with a healthy dosage of kids from the States, Europe and Asia.  The Gemini Sportsplex has become a bit of a Mecca for goalie instruction.

It was amazing for me to meet Keeks who I have idolized for 10 plus years easily as one of the clearest minds on the position of goaltending.  His general philosophy of the position is 24 ounce porterhouse steak with a small side of mashed potato and slaw.  Glamour and glitz have no place in his camp and the laser like focus is for the goalies to get the job done in the most efficient and controlled way possible.  There is no shying away from the hard to do and strenuous power skating and skill drills.  You tough it through or you take a walk.  The instructors lavish the attendees with attention, but there is not much sympathy for “non-hackers”.  Looking forward to the rest of the week.

I also had a missed chance to meet another idol of mine, Maria Mountain who is the goalie nation’s guru for off-ice training.  She moves at a 90 mph at all times, so I blinked and she was gone.  He who hesitates is lost.  I won’t miss an opportunity to shake her hand and introduce myself again.