Rachel's Renegades-

(Taken from Gringo's Blog)

Rachel's Renegades - a truly spectacular group of young players




Minnesota Hockey Camps with

Rachel’s Renegades

July 18 – 24, 2010



As I am driving back home from Minnesota Hockey Camps, it gave me some time to reflect on not only my past week with the Renegades but back to a time when I worked at Minnesota Hockey Camps as a young girl. Back then, there were only a handful of girl hockey players, Cammi Granato was one of those handful, she now has a picture in my dad’s office with her gold medal as captain of the USA Women’s Hockey Team and is a proud member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. I wondered what it would be like to truly share the Minnesota Hockey Camps experience with my own girls and 25 years later I was able to do just that…my daughters returned to camp when girls’ hockey has now become more of the norm than just a handful.



My daughters and I wanted to take our hockey camp experience and share this experience with other girls and that is when Rachel’s Renegades was formed. Little did I know that the experience and a group of 15 girls would impact my life just as the week had impacted their own. We had a group of eleven girls (nine from Stillwater and two from Alexandria) staying on site in cabin #14 with one den mother (myself) and a group of four Brainerd girls who attended day camp.



I think back and am sure I questioned how these eleven girls would spend 7 days together when many of them had never been away from home more than a day. Everything just fell into place. The girls figured out a roommate plan. Two of the girls made signs for every room and woke up before me on Monday morning to post the signs. No one had much time to miss home as the week began.



The mornings were off to an early start with the daily wake up at 7:00am. I never once had to ask a second time for anyone to get up and they all woke with a smile (I am not sure if the smiles were from the sunshine or the morning song that greeted the girls every day). The nights started with a few later nights but as the week and the hard work wore on, the bed time laughter ceased to about five (5) minutes and the cabin was silent.



Their days consisted of the traditional Minnesota Hockey Camps routine which included two ice times, dry land training, weight training, classroom, stick handling and shooting. There was a small amount of recreational time when the girls spent their time playing volleyball, swimming or rollerblading. Four of the girls used their down time to take the “1000 sit ups a day challenge” and were rewarded by Joe Ciardelli, MHC Strength and Conditioning Director, with their name posted on the sit up wall of fame.



This week was a perfect fit for these girls as they were learning about independence, being away from home and the whole camp experience not to mention it involved hockey, their number one passion. It also included some great mentors within Carolyn Sneep, who plays hockey for St. Olaf College and Joe Blake, their counselor, whose passion for the game was apparent in every day activity not to mention connecting with the girls as a true role model. Caroline and Joe even offered to spend one evening frosting cookies with the girls for a night time snack and a little down time.



When I look back as the den mother of the Renegades, one particular event changed me the most. My Dad (Ole’ Gringo) gave a presentation on his “Template for Success…An invitation to critique yourself”. I wondered what these young girls would take away from such a presentation that he typically addresses to a much older audience. So I went back to the cabin and asked what the one thing they took away from the presentation. The first gal who spoke commented,”I wrote a couple of pointers on my arm. Think big. Believe big. Dream big and big things will happen”. She also commented to “always do something out of the ordinary”. Other comments included “it will be the speech I will remember the rest of my life” and “W-I-N…what’s important now”.



Out of all the comments I hope that the one that sticks the most is what it means to be a “great player versus a great person”. The very best player may not be the very best person and that the person you become can lift you up to exceptional player status when you figure out how life works and what it means to be a great person”. Gringo used a prime example of how Sidney Crosby is both a great player and a great person which ultimately proves his tremendous success in life on and off the ice.



What an honor for me to spend a week with these girls. I truly hope the girls will have this memory of their camp experience for the rest of their life and that they too will someday reflect back as I have done to their very first Minnesota Hockey Camps experience and maybe, just maybe, share the experience with their children. I wish nothing but huge success for these gals…they proved to me that hard work and fun can coincide as they truly begin to figure out “how life works”.



Thank you Minnesota Hockey Camps for a great week!



Sincerely,

Rachel Grillo Rondeau



Rachel’s Renegades…breakin’ down the game one goal at a time.

A group of girl hockey players with a passion for the game and building character for life.



Chuck Grillo's comments: This message is one of those moments that mean more to me than those I write, because this is a daughter having a true life of experience out of love for a group of young players. Her obligation to them is greater than their obligation to her, yet she makes it appear that she is the one receiving the rewards. This make her a true mentor; one who emboldens those in her care. Her Mentorship skills are valued versus feared; and that is the measuring stick for any Mentor. I am a very proud Dad!



It's my belief that every one of these young players will reciprocate in some way @ different times in their lives.



Copyright by Chuck Grillo, Minnesota Hockey Camps, 24621 So Clark Lake, Rd P.O. Box 90, Nisswa, MN 56468-0090 Phone 218.96.2444 Fax 218.963.2325 Email: chuck@mnhockeycamps.com All rights are reserved. No part of this book, blog OR template may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing from Minnesota Hockey Camps