Ugh.

Today, I sort of snapped at this kid on the ice. He was jumping up and down on his skates every time he came on the ice. Multiple times. Two feet, every time. It was like he thought hockey was about cannon-balling on the ice or something. I watched him do this endlessly in three games yesterday, and at first I found it curious. But then I envisioned a scrum at the front of the net, where he jumped on somebody's neck. He was jumping a lot. Slamming his skates on the ice. It seemed almost like an obsession. On day two of the under-14 tournament, I mentioned this to the other ref, Orri. I was like "What's with the fucking jumping kid? He's disrespecting the game!" I should have listened to my stomach--I was clearly grumbling for a slice of humble-pie: turns out the kid has Tourette's Syndrome, and this is one of his tics. The worst part: my final words to this kid were: "You can start jumping when you've scored two goals today". Coaching is a big thing here. Those words should have been "Sorry".

I will try to apologize later in the year--he is from Akureyri, so is in 'our' club. His dad has the same thing, as does Runar the singer here, so clearly it runs in the Icelandic blood.