Everyone yelled things like, “You go first!”, “No I don’t know what to do!”, or “Hurry up he’s going to yell at us.”
“What’s going on? Get it together, or you’ll all be puking in five minutes!” Coach yells.

Coach Rinder is the nastiest coach I have ever had.  He is always looking for ways to make us suffer.  When one drill is messed up or one person is talking, the whole team has to skate. We spend almost every practice on that goal line.  It’s tough, but it makes us better.

“That’s it! Everyone on the goal line!” Rinder screams.” I’ve had enough of you guys fooling around!”
“What’s this? The third or fourth time tonight?” Akilli, my teammate, complains.

We are a terrible team. Our first win comes half way through the season. We have a losing record and don’t make the playoffs.

I arrive at one of the practices and Coach is showing off his brand new stick.  Once I get on the ice, we start with an intense skate.  Coach draws up an impossible drill and throws us right into it.  Of course we mess it up and Coach takes his brand new stick and shatters it on the boards.  We skate for the rest of practice.

During one of our games, Coach was angry at all the forwards.

“BRIAN!” Coach screams. “ When you are in the offensive zone, I want you on the faceoff dot!”

My very next shift, I skate into the offensive zone and wait for the puck on the dot.  The puck comes to me and I take a shot.  I score and think huh, maybe Coach is right.

“Wow Bri, this Coach is really tough.” 
“He’s crazy dad”
“I used to have coaches like this, and my dad and I called them yellers.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what describes Rinder”

Coach Rinder is a very important person in my life.  He shapes me to be what I am today.  Without him, I wouldn’t know how to deal with those types of coaches, and that helps me throughout my entire sports career.  I also learn how to take criticism and use it to improve. 

“Again” coach barks.
This is the fourth suicide skate and my legs are burning.  It feel like I have weights on my legs that are dragging me down.  The aching feeling is almost too much to handle as my skates crossed the goal line and I finally finish. 
“Again” Coach insists. 

I went home that night with hatred in my heart.  This coach was so tough I didn’t want to come back to practice.  He scared me so much, I thought about quitting the team.

I later realize that he makes me a much better player.  My skating improves and I feel energized even in the third periods. 

We do learn some things this year.  We learn discipline and hard work.  Coach Rinder makes sure that by the end of the year, everyone is not only a better hockey player, but a better person. Every time we step on the goal line, or skate laps, or listen to repeated screaming from Coach Rinder, he is making us better.

As I step on the goal line, I know I am getting better.  I’ve become very familiar with the goal line throughout the year.  It makes me think of all the determination, grit, and hard work that goes into everything I do on the ice.
I think Coach Rinder  is exactly what the team needs, even if it means terrifying us every day.  Rinder takes a liking to me and teaches me many things.  He even chooses me to play up with his older team when I was an age group below them.

I wish that I could talk to him right now and thank him for what he did to me. He helped me in ways that I never knew a sports coach could. He went beyond the sports realm and shaped our team into good people.  His methods seem harsh and unfair, but they get the job done.