Youth Hockey: Anais Valdez | Atlanta Kings

The Queen of the Kings

Hello, my name is Anais Valdez and I’m nine years old.  I recently switched to a new hockey team, the Atlanta Kings.  I did not want to move but I had to switch because my old rink shut down.  It was not fun but sometimes changes are good.  Anyway, my new team and I just got back from a tournament in North Carolina and placed third. It was a very fun tournament. We also got to explore the ice arena and there were two huge ice rinks, a soccer field and basketball court. My team and I did some stick handling and off-ice skills. We also went to dinner together, it was nice because we were getting to know each other better. Also, at the end of each hockey game there was a player of the game and I wanted to congratulate them for working so hard.  The cool thing about our team is my dad is the coach, along with a few others.

After one of our games, we went swimming in a pool, then it started to thunder and rain so we had to go inside the hotel. While our moms and dads were talking we played hide and seek. Then we played war. The next day we had another team to play and we beat them 13-0. Then we had to go to off-ice and we had to do hard drills like spiderman and other hard drills. The next day a hockey mom brought all of our team goody bags. We got Gatorade chews—they were supposed to give you energy and they did a little bit.

After we played the team, we all went as a team to brunch. When we were done we had to start getting back to the arena and get back into our hockey gear. This was the important game as it determined if we were playing the first place or the fourth place team.

We lost the game by just one goal.  I scored two goals in the game, with the final score being 3-2.  We then went back to the places we were staying at. The next day we were going to our final game. We won and placed third.  After we were done getting undressed, my team and I went and played games together. When we were done, we went back to the places we were staying and got packed before we left for the long drive back to Marietta, GA.

I was not ready to go home, so we stayed one more hour and then we had to leave. I said goodbye to North Carolina and in an instant we left. Stay tuned for more stories of a hockey girl.  Our next big tournaments and games take us to West Chester, PA and West Palm Beach, FL and I can’t wait to tell you about them!