Summer 2021
Hi All!
We are in the process of making our schedule for all the Summer of 2021 programs we will be offering. This summer will be without a doubt the best summer of CCH to date. We have an A+ staff returning to teach our players what we have learned over the course of this year and continue their development as players and people. Hockey is always evolving and so must we as coaches/teachers! We are excited to get back into the full swing of summer programs and see all of our favorite people on a day to day basis.
We will have firm dates, times, and locations for all programming soon, but in the meantime we need some info from all of you. Please fill out the Summer 2021 Reservation Form to ensure that you or your player has the best possible set up for this summer. We want to accommodate everyone the best we can so the more info you can give us now, the better it will be for you come summer time.
Sincerely,
- Barry O’Neil
Summer Programs 2020 Update 5/19/20
Hi Everyone
I hope you are all doing well, happy, and healthy both physically and mentally during this time. In such uncertain times surrounding hockey and the rinks we skate at, it is difficult to make promises. What I can promise all of you is that we are going to do everything we can to ensure your players get the best possible training with us when the time comes.
We may have to make changes going forward but we will do our best to accommodate everyone. Currently we are planning on having all programs as scheduled. This being said, we may have to make smaller sized groups which could change the days, times, prices, and possibly location that you had previously had planned.
We are in contact with the rinks and waiting to get a clear message on what we can and can’t do this summer. It is my hope that we are able to begin skating again at the end of June or beginning of July. Once we get more information we can begin to make adjustments accordingly. If you have any questions reach out anytime. We miss hockey, we miss being at the rinks, but most of all we miss all of you and look forward to getting back together soon!
The saying “you don’t know what you got till its gone” has been sitting with me during this time. When we get back on the ice I will have a brand new appreciation for this sport and am sure all of our players will hit the ice as excited as ever to play and train for the game we all love!
-Barry O’Neil
2020 Program Preview
Whats to come in 2020 for Cape Cod Hockey?
We will be kicking things off this year with February Break Clinics and April Break Clinics at Tony Kent and Gallo Ice Arena. Stay tuned for dates and times.
We will be back again for our 4th summer at Tony Kent with the 8 week CCH Camp from July to August.
Summer Small Area Games will be back again on Tuesday nights all summer so clear your schedule for that.
Night time Skills at Tony Kent will be offered for those not able to make our morning sessions.
We will be hosting our 3rd annual Tune Up Camp at the end of August for Collegiate and Professional players.
Last but not least we are booking up our private and small group sessions now. If you are interested please reach out before its too late!
Cant wait to see what 2020 brings and to see our players develop even more!
10 Things You Can Control
Control
Understanding what you control is a very important aspect of being a successful athlete. When you fully grasp and hold tight to what you can control, and learn how to let go or block out what you can’t, you’ll find yourself on a much more focused and productive path. You’ll be intent on getting better.
By understanding that you need to control your thoughts, actions, and body language, you’ll set yourself up for success on your next opportunity. No coach or teammate wants to see someone looking down, or feeling bad for themselves. If you see someone on your team demonstrating poor body language lift them up! It’s your job as a member of the team to look out for your brothers or sisters and make sure they are controlling what they can control.
Bad shift? “Hey don’t worry about it, next one will be better, shake it off!”
Hockey is a game of mistakes, you’ll make thousands of mistakes throughout your years as an athlete. Guess what? They don’t matter as much as you think. What matters isn’t the mistake, it’s how you react to that mistake. Do you slam your stick? Or blame others? Or, do you take a breath and analyze the situation to try and do your BEST to fix your mistake. That’s all a coach can ask for, no one is perfect. Understand your mistakes don’t define you, it is the moments following your mistakes that do.
A few more easy “controllables” that can help your athletic career are, being prepared, being on time, and treating your body the way it should be treated. What does it mean to be prepared? It means you went to sleep at a reasonable hour the night before a game or practice. It means you had nutritious meals leading up to your game that is going to give you the fuel you need to preform you best. It means you arrived at the rink early to get mentally focused. Ice isn’t free or cheap, the worst thing a hockey player can do is waste their time, or their teammates time on the ice. In soccer or basketball for example, the practice venue can easily be free. Those athletes don’t need to pay to shoot basketballs at the local park, or kick the soccer ball around with their friends at a local field. So when you are on the ice remember that every second is extremely valuable.
Effort comes from within. You control exactly how much effort you put forth each day. One small example is finishing the drill to the end. Many players will stop skating before they reach the end of the drill because no one is watching them. By doing this you cheat your coach, your team, but most importantly you cheat yourself out of getting better. If you make that a habit you are limiting your growth as a player and will never reach your full potential. Great players don’t become great by cutting corners or cheating when the coach isn’t looking. Great players give it their all whether there are 20,000 fans watching the game, or if they’re alone in their driveway shooting pucks. If you want to be great, you have to put in the effort. I was always told that the measure of a person isn’t how they act when people are watching, it is how they act when no one is around.
Attitude is a huge part of hockey and life. Having a positive attitude can take you a lot further than a negative one. Would you rather be around someone who is happy, constantly building up the confidence of the people around them, and is focused on bettering themselves as well as the team? Or the opposite? 10 out of 10 people will go with the former of the two. Coaches have an easy decision to make when a player has a bad attitude.
Scenario: Player A and Player Z are equally talented players. They have the same work ethic and contribute on and off the ice equally. There is only one spot left on the team and the decision has to be made to choose either Player A or Player Z. Player A shows up every day with a smile, has a positive outlook on each day, is well liked by his teammates, and treats people with respect. Player Z shows up miserable to the rink, has poor body language, and does not speak to his teammates very often. Who do you think the coach will choose? Does he have a difficult decision to make? Absolutely not. If you think its Player A you are 100% correct. It is so important to bring these intangible things to the rink each day if you want to continue to advance your hockey career and make teams at a higher level.
How you treat others. The hockey community is a small one. It may seem big when you are young but as you get older you will realize that it is smaller than you think. Coaches talk to coaches, parents talk to parents, and players talk to players. As soon as you have a poor reputation it sticks with you and is very hard to change. It is so important to treat everyone with the respect they deserve. Your parents, your coaches, your teammates, the rink staff, the parking attendant, etc. Everyone that you come in contact with throughout your day should be treated the same way that you would want to be treated. Offer help to someone in need, if you know a teammate is doing something right let them know they’re doing a good job, make an effort each day to practice this habit and it will pay off in the long run.
Goals. You set goals each day, month, and year. You want to make that elite team, you want to play in college, you want to be a leading scorer on your team… These are all goals that you set. If your goals are big and they scare you, that’s great! No one has to know your goals, you can keep them to yourself, but if you want to achieve those goals and reach your full potential you need to set them in your mind first and foremost. Put your goals above all else, make them a priority. If your goal is to make the A team next year, do you think you should spend your entire day inside playing video games or do you think you should be stick handling in your basement working on getting better? If you are consistently thinking about your goals they will naturally become the most important part of your life. If your goal is to make a college or professional roster one day you will need to make sacrifices. You won’t be able to do everything your friends are doing all the time because you have goals and they are not going to come easy. Do what you need to do to give yourself the best possible chance of achieve your goals.
Hopefully you found one of these paragraphs helpful and can focus more on what you can control!
-Barry O’Neil
Cape Cod Hockey
Thankful for Hockey
Thankful
My name is Barry O’Neil and I am thankful for the game of hockey.
This Thanksgiving take a few minutes and think about all the people who helped you get where you are today and spend some time calling, emailing, or texting them to let them know you’re thankful.
I got a text today from one of our player’s parents, she thanked me for everything CCH has done to help her son on and off the ice. We got a lot of these thank you notes after the summer camp ended. I wish I had saved the texts/emails to share but unfortunately I didn’t think to do so at the time! I can’t remember exactly what they all said, but I can remember the way they made me feel. I felt excited, proud, happy, sad, and thankful to receive all these messages from our campers and their parents. I was excited that we had a successful summer, proud to see the growth in so many young hockey players, happy to see so many smiling faces at the rink, sad that it had to come to an end, and thankful for the opportunity to create an environment where players could feel comfortable and enjoyed learning about the game of hockey.
I am thankful for the game of hockey. My entire life hockey has been my focus. Regardless of age, as long as I can remember, hockey has been my passion. It has been an escape from reality, a playground, an office, a spot to relax, a training ground, a classroom, and a home. The game of hockey has taught me a lot and made me who I am today. It taught me about passion, friendship, what effort really is, doing extra, how to be apart of a team, patience, what it takes to be successful, and about fortune.
If you are fortunate enough to play hockey that says enough about your life. It means you have parents, relatives, and friends who support you and will continue to do so. It means you have sacrificed what others are scared to do to achieve a goal. It means you understand what it takes to show up early, commit to something bigger than you, and give it your all. If you have played hockey, be thankful, it has taught you a lot.
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and are fortunate to spend it with those you hold close.
-Barry
Website's Done!
So after almost 2 years of CCH, I finally decided that it was time to make a website. With the help of my good friends, Kyle Shapiro and Sam Valentine, we were able to create what you see today! The idea behind the website is to make it easier on our families to sign up and register for camps/clinics. That’s right…. no more printing registration forms and scanning them to my personal email! Also I would like this website to serve as a place where people, who are not familiar with Cape Cod Hockey, can see the type of work we do first hand and have a better idea about who we are! I hope you like all of our hard work and late nights that we spent perfecting the site and find it useful. Have a great day!
-Barry O’Neil
Cape Cod Hockey Founder