post 19

• Everything happened so quickly. We're through the 1983-84 season now and Wayne's a veteran pro at 23 - but only 6 years ago he was a 17 year old kid getting by on his $24.01 a week playing junior hockey.
• Since then, he's met the President of the United States. He's been to Hollywood, become a celebrity and put hockey numbers on the board people thought were impossible. The family has ridden private jets and gone to Moscow as guests of the Soviet government.
• The Pittsburgh Penguins used to train in Brantford. The year Wayne scored the 378 goals, I was sitting in the rink watching them work out and Wayne asked me if I could get him into their dressing room.
• Morris is a family memeber you havent met yet - Morris Gretzky, a cat who thinks he's a dog. Morris is Brent's cat. Brent can do anything with him. Sometimes he throws him around his neck and wanders around the house wearing him like a fur.
• We argue about trying up the phone and i beef about the phone bill. That runs anywhere from $400 to $800 a month because there are so many things going on, and all 3 kids who are waway phone home a lot.
• Hockey is 5 things: puck-hanling, thinking, skating, checking and desire. If you've got those 5 things you can be a hockey player and at a young age I'd put those first 3 skills in about that order.
• The problem is that some coaches get so invovled in teaching kids the advanced hockey, they forget to show them the basics that will allow them to perform all the tricky things they're trying to teack.
• Sticks were $7 each and there I was cutting and chopping them. But it was the only thing that made any sense.
• watch Wayne when he turns. Most players lean over. Wayne does, too, to an extent, but when he turns quickly, watch his ankles. He flops his ankle over. 2 or 3 years ago he was having trouble when he turned. He'd make the sharp cut and just fall down. I knew what what it was. He'd start the turn, the ankle would go over, the leather would touch the ice and down he'd go.
• I can still remember the day Wayne first went out for baseball. At the time you didnt just register nd play, you had to make the team in your area. I'd told Wayne I'd get him to tryouts as soon as they started, but he missed the first couple because we didn't know they were on.
• I've seen junior hockey coaches who carry 24 kids on the roster and sit 5 out every game.
• I once saw a coach split a team of 14 year olds into 2 groups, one along the blue line. First, he told them to put down their sticks. Then he explained what he wanted them to do. They were to skate full speed at each other, with each boy ramming into the one opposite him. No slowing down. The man wanted full-out collisions.