SO-Patrick+K.

**About Me:**
Hello, my name is Patrick, and I am 12. My favorite food is pizza and my favorite dessert is apple pie. Hockey is my favorite sport. A couple weekends ago I got picked to play on a regional all star team in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin with my friends, Austin, Charley, Braxton, and Jake. After that tournament I tried out for Wisconsin Bucks which is a 3A summer hockey team and I made it. My life goal is to play in the NHL for The Detroit Red Wings, my favorite team. I am jsut starting baseball which is my 2nd favorite sport. I hit a 200 foot home run with a wiffle ball at practice the other day!!!!!!!!!! Well, that's all I have to say about that.

Sincerely, Patrick Kapla Patrick Kapla** In order to be in the best prepared form a hockey team can be there must be cooperation of the coach and 110% effort all of the time. During the practices the team has to be doing there very best and when they mess up they should pay. Not like a die type of pay but twenty-five pushups or sit-ups or something. Ten minutes of conditioning should be the very minimum and a good conditioned team would skate crushers also known as the “Again” drill. This would make sense if you have seen the movie Miracle or heard about the 1980 U.S.A. Olympic hockey team. They were the youngest hockey team in the tournament beating the 4 time back to back winners, CCCP a.k.a. The Soviet Union, make the worlds great hockey legacy, “Miracle.” So for shorts, a prepared team would skate for ten minutes minimum, from the goal to the blue line and back, to the red line and back, to the far blue line and back, and finally to the far goal line and back. Our team was highly prepared as we arrived at the Madison Hockey Rink at eight o’clock in the morning and let me tell you, we were flaming hot and ready to beat anyone in our path. The Eau Claire Mustangs came to the rink with the power no team had ever seen before and… We won our first game to advance our team into the semi-final game at our state tournament in Madison, Wisconsin. We played later on that day against Fon du Lac, one of our biggest rivalries; they beat us three times in the regular season all of those scores were at least a four goal difference, and guess what? **//WE BEAT THEM 9-3 TO ADVANCE TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. 9-3!!// **When you have a chance to be the championship winning team in the state, and you come off the ice and the scoreboard reads 2-0 and you know that you could’ve done something to satisfy yourself greater, you hate yourself. I particularly wanted to die. It really digs deep when you know you could’ve done better and you know that wasn’t the best game of your life. You should play better every time you get out onto that blistering cold ice. When the ref blew his whistle because there were too many players on the ice and you happened to be out on the ice so the coach puts you in the box. When there 2 minutes and fifteen seconds left and you have to sit in the lousy penalty box for two whole minutes. Now let me tell you, when your team is down by two goals to a team that you beat 2-0 in the regular season, two minutes may seem like the termination of the world; at least it did for me. As I came out of the penalty box, the puck was in our possession and my defensive partner passed the puck to me and I had an open break. I was skating down the ice and even though I only skated sixty-five approximate feet it seemed like I was skating for ever with my life at hand, with the puck and as I was about to shoot the other player tripped me. Now normally when you get tripped on an open break you get to have a penalty shot where you would take the puck from the center of the sheet of ice and it’s just you and the goalie with a one on zero; but in my case, I didn’t. The buzzer rang and at that moment I really wanted to cry, I mean I really really wanted to cry, but I had to hold it in. I sat in the corner of the rink as I watched the other team leap into a pile on top of there goalie in the opposite corner that I was in. I got up and skated off the ice, I didn’t get my medal, I didn’t get our second place trophy, I just got up and left. I went to the locker room and of course, you guessed it, when I was all alone, I started to cry, I just let it out. My coach came in to talk to me and he said, “Kappy, if you are going to cry that’s absolutely fine with me but all I can say is that if you scored that it wouldn’t have mattered. You played your heart out and so did the rest of the team so cry or not you did great. You also should not cry because you played a phenomenal game and you should be very proud of yourself because you’ve come along way from the begging of the season and you just played out of your mind.” That made so much sense to me that no matter what, 2-0 or 2-1, I played a very good game and I contributed all that I could and there was nothing else I could do. That’s what I think Coach Fitzgerald was trying to get across my mind. When you realize that you’re a kid that wasn’t born with as much athletic talent as some other people that you know, there is still a chance to be better, but you have to work hard and the things that you have to work for don’t just come naturally like they do some people. When hockey players are born, they are destined to play in the big league along with the //Wayne Gretzky//’s and the //Mark Messier//’s. A lot of the kids start out a little far behind everyone and from there they must work to earn a spot in the NHL or have the right to be called, “The Great One,” (Wayne Gretzky), it takes hard work and a lot of integrity to get to where you want to be. Nothing athletically is a piece of cake. My point is that if you want something such as to play hockey in the NHL:, some people may just be able to make as far as the //NHL// without a lot whole lot of hard work and effort/time, but most of the people absolutely just have a love for the sport and that takes them where dreams can't even take a young athlete.
 * Preparation

// Wayne Gretzky: A famous hockey player in the Northwestern Hemisphere who is now retired but broke every scoring and assisting record possible throughout twenty-one years of playing hockey in the NHL. // // Mark Messier: A famous hockey played who played along with “The Great One” as a defenseman breaking some defensive scoring records. //

//NHL: National Hockey League//

**Questions for Peer Reviewers**
(Think in terms of questions you would like to ask the author.)

1. Think of plot—is it original? (If an adaptation, is it creative or interesting to you?) What suggestions do you have for the author(s)?

2. Think about problems that the characters face. Are there complications that add enough suspense, tension, or interest? Is there a climax that satisfies you? Is the resolution satisfying? What could be added or changed?

3. Think of characterization—are the characters life-like? Are characters likable and enjoyable? Do we get a good sense of character from many of these: description, dialogue, narrator's opinion, discussion from other characters, the character’s own actions?

4. Think of imagery and details. Do they help you //see// and //hear// and //experience// the story? What details would you like to see in the next revision of the story?

5. What areas of the story need the most improvement? What suggestions do you have for the author?