Blog

Too late to play?

· Steve Carroll

The other day I talked with a goalie parent who wondered if it was too late for his 14-year-old to start playing goalie.

My response was, too late for what?

If a child has interest in playing goal, in my opinion it’s never too late. Who knows how it is going to turn out. If possible, you want to give your children a chance to chase their dreams.

The key is for the parents and child to manage the expectations.

Will the late start affect whether the child makes their high school team? Maybe..maybe not…who knows..Should that be a goal in the first place? There a plenty of benefits for participating in a team activity regardless of what level they play at.

Maybe the teenager will fall in love with the position and continue to play the game when he is an adult. Again, who knows.

After our discussion, the parent emailed me back to let me know that he is going to let his teenager start playing goalie this summer and register for a team in the fall. He also added that he was going to enroll his first-year goalie in our summer camps to learn some goaltending fundamentals.

I think it’s great! I look forward to working with him! And I would guess he’ll be eager to learn!

 

What does it take?

· Steve Carroll

I was watching a game at the Minnesota Hockey High Performance Festival in Plymouth, when an evaluator asked me what I look for in picking the best goalies.

I told him I look for goalies who can move about the crease and a goalie who competes. He replied, what do you mean? I told him that goalies need to be able to skate like no one else on the ice, with power and precision, and they also need to be able to move laterally both when they are on their feet and when they are on the ice.

I think what really separates most goalies at this level is their desire to compete. It is often easy to see which goalies are battling out there and determined to make as many saves as it takes to keep the puck out of the net, and the ones who are lost after making the first save figuring their job is done.

I added that many goalies at this level are good with their crease movements, but struggle with the desire to compete.

That’s because somewhere along the way, the instinctive or competitive part of their game disappeared. They became consumed with thinking about what save selection they were told to make in certain situations instead of reacting to the shot they were facing and making the appropriate save selection. When the competitive piece is missing from a goalie’s tool box, it usually doesn’t work out very well.

And I added that another thing I look for is goalies who not only stop the puck, but also control it once they make the initial save. Does the rebound go into the corner, does the goalie smoother the puck, of if it gets away, do they get their body in position to make the follow-up save?

As an evaluator you need to find things that separate the group. If you focus on skating/movement, desire to compete and ability to control the puck, it makes it easier to select the top goalies.

He thanked me and told me this insight would really help him with his selections.

Maverick honor

· Steve Carroll

http://vimeo.com/22919619

I was recently selected as one of the 10 greatest players in Minnesota State University, Mankato hockey history. This video segment aired on TV during one of the Mavericks home hockey games. I am humbled by the honor.

Let’s Play Hockey Expo a hit

· Steve Carroll

Carroll Goalie School's booth at 2011 Let's Play Hockey Expo in St. Paul.

Spent at good part of the weekend at my booth at the Let’s Play Hockey Expo in St. Paul. The two-day event attracts thousands of people each year. It was great to see everyone who stopped by to say hi. My former high school coach – hockey legend – Willard Ikola, and former Rochester great and Stanley Cup winner Shjon Podein were among the hockey folks who I visited with at my booth.

State tourney memories

· Steve Carroll
Edina goalie Steve Carroll makes a save during the state high school championship game against Rochester John Marshall.

Like many of you, I grew up dreaming about playing in the state high school tournament. My dream came true during my senior year at Edina-East High School as we beat our crosstown rivals from Edina-West to advance to the state tournament. I remember the awesome experience like it was yesterday.

We had a very good team that include several seniors who would go on to play Division I hockey at schools like Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan Tech, and Notre Dame. I went on to play at Mankato State, while another senior classmate continued his hockey career at Gustavus. I was the fortunate to get the staring nod in the three tournament games.

The tournament was played at the St. Paul Civic Center, which featured the glass dasher boards. It was also an eight-team tournament back then — no AA and A.

Our opening night game was a classic match-up as we faced off against Roseau and a guy named Neal Broten. We came into the game with a 23-1 record, (only loss was to Burnsville) while the Rams entered the contest with a perfect 23-0 mark!

It was number 1 against number 2 and from what I remember it was a barnburner. The Hornets skated with a hard-fought 2-0 win. Turns out, it was one of the few times during his legendary high school hockey career that Broten was held without a point.

In the semifinals, we squared off against the “Big Orange Machine” from Grand Rapids, which was the two-time defending state champions. The Indians as they were known back then, featured a number of future Division one hockey players including guy by the name of Don Lucia. This too, was an exciting back and forth high-scoring game. When the final buzzer sounded, we escaped with a thrilling 6-5 win.

That put us into the championship game against Rochester John Marshall. The Rockets featured a goalie by the name of Paul Butters who stopped just about everything they threw at him and the high-scoring Lecy brothers. The squad from southern Minnesota was just too much for us that night as they captured the title with a 4-2.

Even though we lost in the championship game, having the opportunity to play in the state tourney is something I will never forget. It was quite a weekend!

Carroll Goalie School Featured on Michigan Hockey Magazine

· Steve Carroll

A photo from the Carroll Goalie School was chosen for the front cover of the recent Michigan Hockey online magazine. The publication cover all levels of hockey in the Michigan area. How cool is that?

coverflattened

Word about our popular program continues to spread throughout the upper midwest.
Great publicity like this will hopefully encourage more goalies from the Michigan area and other parts of the country to check out the Carroll Goalie School experience!

Evaluating goalies during MN Hockey Advanced Program

· Steve Carroll

This past weekend, I was at Plymouth Ice Arena, working as a goalie evaluator for Minnesota Hockey’s Advanced Final 54 tryout for the Girls Advanced 16 and 17 Programs.

There were six goalies in each age group. We had the challenging task of ranking the goalies from top to bottom. The highest ranked goalies in each age group have a chance to be invited to USA Hockey’s National Development Camp along other talented goalies from throughout the country.

The other goalie evaluators were Mandy Cronin from USA Hockey and Aaron Haupert, an assistant coach for St. Mary’s University women’s hockey team.

We watched the goalies closely during scrimmages (and expanded warm-ups) and we had some excellent in-depth discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of each participant as we determined the final rankings.

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