Wednesday, November 10, 1999

Coach Denny Bray was preoccupied when one of his players shouted in mid drill, "Hey coach, can we switch sides?"

With no answer from the coach, junior Rhianna Jacobs took control.

"Switch sides," she commanded and soon the centering-pass drill continued from the other side of the rink.

"That’s what I like to see," said Bray, who’s in his third year of coaching the 4-year-old girls hockey program. "I want to be able to name the drill and have them start themselves."

You might describe Bray’s hockey practices, which started Nov. 1, as one continuous 90-minute drill made up of dozens of little drills.

"I like to run an up-tempo practice," said Bray, who draws from five playbooks full of drills. "I want 90 minutes of constant skating."

One call from the coach and his skaters smoothly move from one drill to the next.

There are drills that stress skating forwards, backwards, sideways, crossing over, stopping, starting, stickhandling and more.

"I introduce one new drill every other day for the first couple of weeks," Bray said.

Before long, the drills are engrained in the players, who operate as efficiently as worker ants – never complaining, simply hustling to accomplish the task at hand.

Bray’s voice is a constant needle throughout practice.

"Push it … Let’s go … Right now … Hustle," are just some of the prods he uses.

Sometimes before switching drills, he’ll ask his players to sprint the length of the ice and back.

It’s a conditioning excercise in more than one way.

Bray’s team moves on his mark into drills with far-out names like Russian Circles, Blue Line Backwards and The Thumper Drill.

The Thumper begins with Bray dumping the puck into the corner.

Two girls give chase.

The one that returns to the red line with the puck doesn’t have to do 10 pushups before getting back in line.