The Vickerman Family Happenings: Rookie Camp

Taylor was drafted in the 6th round of the 2011 Bantam Draft by an awesome organization - The Vancouver Giants . He was invited to participate in their rookie camp which began on Thursday, August 25th and was supposed to end for most rookies by Saturday night. Gma & Pa Vickerman was assigned the task of taking TV up to the camp. Lance has NO vacation time left and since i am starting a new job teaching which began the next week - i was not able to take off either:( But! Lance's friday off was that week and i hustled to get everything done so i could go too! So, we (including the girls & gma B.) took off for BC Thursday afternoon so we could watch 3 out of 4 games on Friday. Taylor was scheduled to fly out of Seattle early Saturday morning for Cleveland because his school had already started earlier that week - we wanted him to get there and be ready for school monday morning (unfortunately, the school wasn't ready for HIM and his first day wasn't until Wednesday - ugh:()

We were so thankful that we chose to make this last minute trip to watch him. I was so SUPER PROUD of him! He was amazing! He just keeps getting better & better! He was right in his first interview when he said the "Vancouver got a steal" they sure did!! He was so hungry for that puck and when he got to it he took control of the puck & ice. He didn't let ANYTHING get in his way! and we weren't the only ones who noticed!!

The management had heard that we had to leave after his 3rd game and wanted to talk with us. We had an amazing opportunity to hear how impressed they were in TV's game and that if he was able to stay that they would've liked him to go right into the Main Camp! Wow! - What an honor to hear that:) They had definately seen his hard work that he put in over the summer and they were very happy with his performance! We questioned whether or not we should let him stay but felt that his school and transition to Cleveland was pretty important. Had he stayed for the Main Camp, it wouldn't have changed anything because he can't play for them until he's 16 anyway...

Our goodbye was bitter sweet... Lance & I took him out to the front of the Ladner Center and told him about our meeting and i haven't seen him grin from ear to ear like that in a LOOOOONNNNG time! He was so happy!!! and then we had to tell him goodbye...

We got reports from Gpa V. that his 4th game was even better than the last 3 that we had seen! He scored several goals and had several good checks - i'm a proud mama - for sure:)

PS - a few days before the Rookie camp, TV had some good friends & family over for a "Good luck/Good bye" party -{ unfortunately, my pics didn't turn out - i need to work on the files:)} Hopefully, i can post more about that - but a verse that we shared that night was "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Phil 4:13 - this verse is on his wall at home & on the prayer "Fer Da Boyz" bracelets that we gave out too - it continues to speak to us...