Chris Hartwick is a coach with Napanee Minor hockey, currently assisting with the Napanee Atom AE’s and the Novice BB. Chris started his coaching career at 19 years of age, when he helped coach midget juvenile house league and the players were actually older than him. He said the next few years after that he helped coach the juvenile rep team, so he found himself coaching a lot of his friends as he was playing junior at the time. He said he loved and enjoyed that. The Hartwick family certainly aren’t strangers to the coaching world. His dad, grandfather and brother have also been heavily involved and it came naturally for him. He said he feels guilty at times being labelled a volunteer, since he thinks he gets just as much out of it, as the kids do.
When asked what he gets out of coaching, Chris was quick to say, “first of all, kids are awesome”. He goes on to say they keep everything simple, so they are fun to be around. He said when you teach the kids a drill or implement a system and see them do it and continue to get better at doing it, that’s what makes it great.
Chris says each of the kids that the coaches are incredible. He says they are still young though so at times getting them to pay attention can be a bit of a challenge. But for the most part Chris says when he or the other coaches of the novice team, Dave, Jeff and Kevin speak, the kids listen. Chris adds that Kevin is a principal and Dave the head coach, and they have no problem getting the kids to listen. He says the kids all tend to pay attention and do the drills they are asked to do, which can be hard at times for an eight-year old.
Chris says if you are considering coaching, make sure you bring your love of the sport with you. He mentions that you are always going to have to tell kids what they did wrong, as it helps them to grow. But he says sometimes they don’t hear enough about what they are doing right, and they won’t know to repeat it. He stresses how important it is to praise kids in their accomplishments. He said the good thing about being positive with the kids is that when you do need to be stern they tend to pay attention, you don’t lose them.
Chris was asked what accomplishment he was proud of and he had two things. The Novice team did a big toy drive at Christmas where they had to buy a toy with their own money for a child in need. He said the kids didn’t really understand at first why they were doing it, but he said watching them realize and figure it out was huge for him. He said it goes beyond just hockey on the ice, it’s about building character.
The second thing for Chris, which he stressed was a big deal for him has to do with his Atom team. Last year the players lost a member of their team, Camden Arthur. This year all of Cam’s teammates moved up to Atom. Chris says seeing the kids have to go through what they’ve been through and watching as they rally around one another and do a salute for Cam every game is pretty “heartwarming.” He says it really brings them all together. Chris then mentioned Cam’s dad, Shane, who is still the head coach of the kids. He’s my hero. To go through what he has gone through and still come to the rink and smile, the kids love him, he is everybody’s hero on that team.”
