2012 1103 Beginning of Regular Season

Over the past month, I have finished with my tutoring, grown used to my everyday schedule, and have played a lot of hockey. On October 17th, I took my PSAT test to open up options for high school next year back in the U.S. I think I did pretty well, especially on the math and writing sections, but I am still waiting to receive my results. Currently, I am looking at prep schools for the following year that have strong academics and a high level of hockey. These are all schools in the New England region. In addition, my homework has leveled off and I am not as stressed. This week is Fall Break in Sweden so I haven't had school. Our regular season has started a few weeks ago. It has been a tough start so far. We have lost three close games and won one in a blowout. We will have many games in the next six weeks leading up to Christmas. I am skating better and my speed is improving. The weather here has dropped to around freezing. Last week, we had a dusting of snow and the clocks changed so now it gets dark at about 4:00.

2012 0930 End of a Busy Month

This past month many things have happened that are starting to get me into an everyday rountine. Schoolwork has escalated quickly and we are beginning to receive much more homework in school. There are projects and essays along with other homework that I have spent a lot of time focusing on. I'm also doing two tutoring sessions a week online to prepare to take the PSAT test in under a month. This test is necessary if I decide to go to a hockey boarding school next year in the United States. In addition to my academics, I have been skating nearly everyday in practice and have played several games as well. A few weeks ago we won a small tournament in Sundsvall, which is four hours by car north of Stockholm. We won and tied two games each while playing very competitive games against the host team who we eventually beat 10-7 in the final. We have won a few exbition games and have a few left to play before the regular season starts in about two weeks. Practice has been going a little better for me and has been very rewarding.

2012 0901 Back on the Ice

Much has happened since I arrived in Stockholm almost a month ago. A few weeks ago I started skating again in Sweden at Rimbo. It has been tough to adjust to a different style of hockey at a higher level after a dissapointing season back in the United States last year. However, after a groin injury and a couple weeks recovering, I am getting closer to where I want to be. We have played some exibition games including the Bauer Cup in Stockholm as well as some friendly games here and there. I have also began my studies at the Stockholm International School the past two and a half weeks. I have felt very comfortable at the school since the first few days. Last week we went on a class trip to Storulvan in Jamtland for class bonding and hiking. I have made many friends so far from several countries including Sweden, Finalnd, United States, Germany, England, and others. I had a ton of fun on the trip in places including the airplane we travelled on, the bus, our room (with two bunkbeds), the sauna, and the mountains.

2012 0804 Back Again

A few weeks ago I decided to move back to Sweden and play for Taby again. It was a very difficult decision to leave home but if I want to play hockey at a high level, this was my only choice. Starting in two weeks I will be going into 10th grade at the Stockholm International School. Almost all of the classes are in English where as last time I went to a school that spoke mostly Swedish. I'm very excited that we start skating in a couple days. It will feel great to get back on the ice. I'm also very excited to be staying with the Svensson's family again. We have been fixing the house in ways including painting the roof, building another bedroom, and cleaning out storage items. It already feels like home as I am unpacked after arriving Wednesday.

2011 0825 Karlstad

Championship Arena

This is the rink where the championship was played in the tournament last week. The tournament took place throught Central Sweden in six different places. This was a big preseason tournament with 36 teams including two from Taby. Along with Josh and Ture, I played on the second team. We were okay and competed in ten out of our eleven games. We played five games in the first round which took two days. Unfortunately, we ended up fifth out of six teams and went into the C-playoffs. In this round we stepped up our play to go 4-1. At the conclusion of the tournament we ended up .500. However, the other Taby team played very well, qualifying for the A-playoffs where they would stay undefeated to go to the championship. After a close game with Brynas in the big arena the game would go to overtime tied 1-1. On a Taby powerplay Gustav Skyttvall blasted a slapper past the goalie to give Taby the win in dramatic fashion! It was a fun tournament for us Americans and playing in Sweden is always special. It was great to see Taby win another event. The bus rides to and from Karlstad were a blast as well. The drive was about four hours plus the time that it took us to stop and eat. The vehicle was pretty packed with around forty people filling up the fifty seats or so. After another day in Stockholm we flew home on Tuesday morning. First though, I went to school for a quick hello and said good-bye to the Svensson's and my teammates. After a long day on Tuesday with a shocking earthquake in the Washington D.C. area we arrived home. While the earthquake did not cause any injuries or much damage, it was the biggest on the east coast for 70 years. In two days we will prepare for a pretty strong hurricane that is coming up the East Coast already. I will try to keep blogging about the school year here and anything more I hear from Sweden.



2011 0816 Training Camp

Rimbo

This last week we had some really tough practices back in Rimbo. We did a lot of running in the off-ice to get us back in shape for the upcoming season. It was a lot of fun to be back in Sweden practicing with Taby again. Besides a couple players that left the team and some new faces that arrived it is still the same team at the same level. Josh was there for the whole week and Ture arrived on the weekend. Throughout the week we had some practice games that were part of the Stockholm Bauer Invite. The team won some including a win against the U.S. Selects but also lost some. In the end Taby finished third out of six teams. Today we will take the bus to Karlstad where there is a big tournament. Taby has two teams in this tournament. My dad also arrived this morning and will stay until we will both leave on next Tuesday. It was fun to play in Rimbo as this was where my first game in Sweden took place. This will be my last week in Sweden for some time, but I will be back in the future for sure.



2011 0808 Camp

Logo

This past week I went to Michael Nylander's camp along with a few other players from Taby. There were many good players there. Althouh we only skated twice a day it felt great to be back on the ice on a regular basis. We played a lot of soccer and did much running here on the off-ice as well. Yesterday was a calm day just relaxing and today we will go into the city to tour around a bit. Soon coming up is Taby's camp with the Bauer Invite thrown in among the practices. This will be coached by Fredrik again and will be fun to be back with the team. Josh, my teammate from the United States arrived yesterday and another player, Ture will arrive next week, about the same time as my dad. then everybody will take the bus to central Sweden in Karlstad. Here is a pretty big preseason tournament. After this we will fly out of Stockholm back home to the United States. I will have two weeks vacation before school starts up in the United States this time though!