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Ten-year-old Austin Reed of Cambridge is very passionate about his hobby, ice hockey, and has just recently completed his first year with a full travel team.
Reed, son of Blake and Angie Reed, started skating at the age of three.
“I always try and do something special with the kids on a one-on-one basis,” stated Angie. “When Austin was three he wanted to go ice skating so we went to the Quad City Sports Center, now known as the River’s Edge. He caught on to skating right away even though it wasn’t as easy for me.”
That day Austin saw some kids playing ice hockey there and asked his mom if he could do that too.
“I decided to inquire at the pro shop and see when kids could start playing hockey and what it involved,” Angie said. “After one year of instructional hockey, Austin began playing on a league.”
Austin became a member of the Termites, a team for four, five and six year olds playing on a house league.
The Termites participated in a three-on-three league at the Quad City Sports Center.
“It was all in-house except when the team participated in the Iowa games in Dubuque to end the season,” Angie said. “They ran that like an actual Olympics, flame and all.”
Austin played on that team for the next two years as well.
At the age of seven, Austin changed teams and became a member of the Mites which consisted of boys ages seven and eight.
“It was a bigger team and we traveled more,” stated Austin. “We had practice once a week and played almost every weekend.”
After playing on the Mites for two years, Austin decided to take a year off because most of his friends he played with went to full-travel teams. He and his parents were quite ready for that commitment yet.
Last fall, Austin realized how much he missed the sport and decided to try out for a full-travel team and made it. He became a member of the Squirts.
“Approximately 30 kids tried out for the team with them taking the top 14 kids,” Austin said. “We finished the season with 28 wins and 19 loses.”
Austin started off the season as a defensive player, but after two weeks was moved to offense where he plays a forward left wing.
The full-travel team is a lot more demanding, having two or three practices a week and traveling during the weekend for games.
Ten-year-old Austin Reed of Cambridge is very passionate about his hobby, ice hockey, and has just recently completed his first year with a full travel team.
Reed, son of Blake and Angie Reed, started skating at the age of three.
“I always try and do something special with the kids on a one-on-one basis,” stated Angie. “When Austin was three he wanted to go ice skating so we went to the Quad City Sports Center, now known as the River’s Edge. He caught on to skating right away even though it wasn’t as easy for me.”
That day Austin saw some kids playing ice hockey there and asked his mom if he could do that too.
“I decided to inquire at the pro shop and see when kids could start playing hockey and what it involved,” Angie said. “After one year of instructional hockey, Austin began playing on a league.”
Austin became a member of the Termites, a team for four, five and six year olds playing on a house league.
The Termites participated in a three-on-three league at the Quad City Sports Center.
“It was all in-house except when the team participated in the Iowa games in Dubuque to end the season,” Angie said. “They ran that like an actual Olympics, flame and all.”
Austin played on that team for the next two years as well.
At the age of seven, Austin changed teams and became a member of the Mites which consisted of boys ages seven and eight.
“It was a bigger team and we traveled more,” stated Austin. “We had practice once a week and played almost every weekend.”
After playing on the Mites for two years, Austin decided to take a year off because most of his friends he played with went to full-travel teams. He and his parents were quite ready for that commitment yet.
Last fall, Austin realized how much he missed the sport and decided to try out for a full-travel team and made it. He became a member of the Squirts.
“Approximately 30 kids tried out for the team with them taking the top 14 kids,” Austin said. “We finished the season with 28 wins and 19 loses.”
Austin started off the season as a defensive player, but after two weeks was moved to offense where he plays a forward left wing.
The full-travel team is a lot more demanding, having two or three practices a week and traveling during the weekend for games.
“That is a lot of driving time, having to go back and forth to Davenport for their six-month season, October through February,” Angie said. “None of this would have been possible if my parents, Vance and Pat Edmondson of Coal Valley, didn’t help out. There was always some family member there to support and cheer him on. Sometimes it is just impossible for Blake or I to be there with the other kids having other activities.”
This year, Austin and his team traveled all over.
They won a tournament at the Onalaska Omni Center in Wisconsin. The team also took several second place trophies home throughout the season including the Artic Blast in St. Louis, a Snowball Tournament in Peoria and the Midwest Hockey League.
Playing hockey requires a lot of special equipment.
“I have to have knee pads, socks that cover the knee pads, short pants, skates, a chest protector, elbow pads, a jersey, a helmet, a neck guard, gloves and a mouth guard,” Austin said. “They are very firm on safety and if you don’t have everything, you can’t play.”
Austin’s favorite pro team is the Pittsburgh Penguins. He got to go to one of their games for his birthday and also wears their jerseys on game days throughout the year. He also cheers on the Chicago Blackhawks.
Besides hockey, Austin loves to play football, basketball and baseball which means he had a tough decisions lately whether he would chose to travel again next year or not.
For right know, Austin has decided not to be a member of the traveling team because he wants to play football in the fall and being a member of the traveling team would prevent that. He will be a member of a house or house-select pee wee team. House teams play mainly in house while house-select teams travel nearby.
If Austin could have one dream come true, he wishes Cambridge had an ice skating rink and some of his Cambridge friends were playing with him.
