And the Journey Continues...

Yesterday, I got a call from the head coach of the Bismarck Bobcats. He asked how I thought I did this past weekend, and I told him I thought I played well. He said he thought I played well too, but then he started to tell me that he doesn't think he has a spot for me on the team this year. He said he wishes things were different because I'm a great kid with a lot of potential, but he thinks the best thing for me is to go somewhere I can play night in and night out and play in every situation. They have a lot of defensemen coming back next year, and he doesn't want to do the same thing he did to me last year, where I pay all this money to go to camps and tryouts and buy flights up to North Dakota, and then have me sit games and end up leaving 2 months into the season. He told me he thinks after one more year of juniors, I will be a good player at the college level, but that the next year for me is huge in my development, and I need to play. He reemphasized that he wishes it was different because over the past year, I've done everything he's asked of me and more, but he thinks the best thing for me is to go back to Idaho or go somewhere in the NAHL where I will play and get coached. I'm happy he was honest with me, and I sort of saw it coming, to be honest. I definitely agree. I think the best thing for me is to go somewhere I can be a top 2 defenseman; even though I would love to go back to Bismarck, it'll be much more beneficial for me to play a lot than to go back to Bismarck and be a number 5, 6, or 7 defenseman.

Now this makes my decisions this summer a lot more simple. I have a few more tryouts coming up in the next few weeks, and I'll just see what happens. I know I have a great place to go in Idaho, and I know what I will get there: great coaching and a lot of playing time. But I'm going to see what comes up in the next few tryouts I go to. I know for sure that I'm not going to go play in the NAHL just to play in the NAHL. If I make an NAHL team, I need to make sure it's the right fit for me because I know Idaho is a great fit for me. And why would I go somewhere where I don't know what kind of coaching I will get or how much playing time I will get when I know what I will get in Idaho? The journey continues...