Champions

This weekend, my oldest daughter's hockey team won a tournament in St. Catherine's Ontario, and over the course of three days we learned some valuable lessons together...

Lily is a 5th grader playing on a team of mostly 6th and 7th graders.

And hockey is hard for her.

The strength and athletic ability needed for skating and stick-handling that might come easy for some kids, isn't something that comes easy for her. But she does her absolute best.

When you combine that with the maturity level differences that occur amongst middle-schoolers, it makes for a challenging environment for the kid.

But she scored the first goal of the tournament for her team. And was awarded the MVP of our quarterfinal game - where she scored again.

And over the course of 50 hours, she helped her team win 6 straight games to become a tournament champion.

She did all of this while fighting off a cold - which pushed her to make healthy choices with nutrition, hydration and rest, so that she could have the energy she needed to give her best.

So here's what we learned:

Challenging Environment + Best effort + Self-discipline + Perseverance = Champion

And that equation holds true whether you win a medal or not.

Great job kid.