This week, Lightning Radio introduces our intern Brandon Kisker. You’ve heard Brandon on our daily Scoreboard in a Flash and Schedule in a Flash updates. Now he sits down with Lightning defenseman Brett Clark, a 15-year pro hockey veteran. Clark’s 9-year-old son Cail is skating in his father’s footsteps, and the elder Clark discusses with Brandon what it’s like to have a child playing the sport he makes a living off of while offering advice to those parents looking to get their kids involved in youth sports. You can listen to the interview in its entirety here.
Brett Clark may have been born to play professional hockey, but he has a job far more important than his job on the ice. Brett is a parent of two young children, son Cail and daughter Ava. Cail, who is turning 9 this year, can be found running around with other players children on gamedays, but he can also be found on the ice any chance he gets. “With me being at the rink everyday and practices, he’d come to the rink when I was in Hershey, and he’d start picking up his stick, and everything just kind of fell from there,” says Clark. “He wanted to come on the ice all the time.” Cail doesn’t need motivation to get out on the ice. He wants it as Brett explains with a few chuckles and a giant smile. “He loves going out there and playing, and as long as he’s having fun, that’s all I’m worried about.”
Youth hockey is supposed to be about fun but it’s also about development. When Brett was growing up he had the luxury of having parents that ran a little rink in Wapella, Saskatchewan (population 408), and he’d be out on the ice four or five times a week, sometimes even everyday. That’s quite a bit different from how things run in the Tampa Bay area, a population over 2.5 million. “It doesn’t matter where you go for hockey, whether it’s small towns, big cities, the fundamentals are still the same.” The fundamentals may be the same regardless of where you learn the game, but learning in a big city with only four rinks (not counting the Tampa Bay Times Forum) is indeed a challenge. “Kids just don’t get that amount of ice time. There’s a lot of adult hockey and a lot of stuff going on, and not a huge amount of rinks right now. I think that’s the biggest difference I know, just the amount of time I spent on the ice. A lot of time you don’t get that opportunity down here.”
Brett explained that the difference in ice time does not hurt Cail’s development, but that it’s just different. Brett would be on the ice daily as a child while Cail has to take what he can get now. “There are a lot of good programs around here in Florida, and all the kids I watch from the start of the year to the end of the year are developing and getting better, and as a parent and coach that’s all you’re looking for at this age.”
Another unfortunate fact is because of Brett’s occupation, he doesn’t get the chance to watch his son play too often, but when he does, sometimes a group of the players go and watch Cail play a game or practice. Brett is sure to let Cail develop naturally and not complicate the game by sharing his professional expertise and knowledge of the game unless Cail asks. “I don’t want to push him to hard because I don’t want to push him away from loving something he enjoys to do.”
In fact Cail is starting baseball this year and Brett explains that it’s merely to let his mind drift away from his focus on hockey and to let him know there are other things out there. I’m not a parent but I can respect Brett’s mentality of not pushing Cail too hard and letting him develop his own interests and passions. Throughout our conversation he mentioned these ideals multiple times and continued to mention that the game should be first and foremost, fun. Sometimes our society can lose sight of that from the professional ranks down to the youth developmental ranks. The fact is the game has to be fun at all ages, and you have to enjoy what you are doing, because if you are forced into something you don’t want to do, you’ll never be happy.
The game is still fun for Brett in the NHL, and he makes sure to keep the pressure off of Cail, and to make sure he still has a passion and a want to play hockey. That goes true for all parents regardless of occupation and sport. “Don’t try and live the dream through the kid, let them do what they want and develop the way he’s going to develop,” Brett explains. “Let them develop, go out there and have fun, push them when you need to, but don’t overdo it.”
If your child is interested in playing hockey, find a local sporting good store (even some that sell and take back used equipment…kids grow like weeds) to get your child outfitted and look into youth developmental programs near you. There are plenty of “learn to play” clinics you can put your child in at local rinks, as well as clinics run by the likes of Brian Bradley, Chris Dingman, and other Lightning Alumni, at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. For more information on those, click over to the Lightning’s Youth Hockey Clinic page.
Want to get your kids involved in hockey? Check out the websites below for local Bay area ice rinks, and get more information and advice on youth hockey from USA Hockey.
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