This episode of "A Pane In The Glass Podcast" clearly falls into the unusual category. The best way to describe it is by referring to it as a podcast version of an audio book. The book is a wonderful story for young people, by my friend from Newfoundland & Labrador, Jean Blackie. The title seems somewhat contradictory in that the word "sweeps" in the title doesn't quite seem to fit. One might expect the word "shoots", as in hockey. Well, that's the whole point of the story. It is about hockey but it doesn't end solely about hockey.
The protagonist in the story is a young aspiring hockey player named Shawn. He wants desperately to make the rep. hockey team for a variety of reasons. When he doesn't survive the final cut (and some of his close friends do), his world is turned upside down!
That's when a kindly next door neighbour enters the story, suggesting that Shawn give curling a try. After much sole searching he does just that and to his surprise, his hockey playing friends also discover that hockey isn't the only winter sport to play.
I initially wanted to publish this podcast audio book at Christmas as my gift to young people but I chose this time of year as many aspiring hockey players will have found themselves in the same situation as Shawn. It's in the months of late September and early October that "rep. hockey teams" are established from tryouts. If you know of a boy or girl, who like Shawn, didn't make the team, suggest they listen to "He Sweeps, He Scores".
The chapters have been recorded by author Jean Blackie and yours truly!
This episode is dedicated to my grandsons, Lucas & Jacob Tschirhart (stars of S1E1 & S1E25 of “A Pane In The Glass Podcast”) who know all too well what Shawn went through when they tried out for their rep. hockey team !