Peter Galli is coaching arguably the most famous bantam B girls' hockey team in the country.
On Saturday, Galli's Blades made a cameo on Hockey Night in Canada to introduce the game between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs.
How did your team's TV gig go?
Galli: Great. The girls were very excited. They didn't know what to expect because they've never been in front of a camera before. We must've done about 20 takes, but the girls had a lot of fun.
How long have you coached hockey?
Galli: I've spent five years coaching my son, and the last three years in girls' hockey. I was coaching my son initially in MAGH and then my daughter decided to get out of the pool and onto the frozen pond, so I took up coaching both kids' teams at one point. This year, I decided to take a break from the boys and stay with the girls.
What's the biggest difference between coaching boys and girls?
Galli: The first thing really was the dressing room environment. With the boys, we pretty much owned the room. We let them do what they had to do, but we were always in the room. With girls, for obvious reasons, and at the age I started coaching a team -at 12 and up, now they're 14 and 15 and young ladies -they own the room. It's important we have a female adult figure not far who can go in the room and make sure the girls are staying on track, because of all the texting, the BlackBerrys, the cellphones and all that stuff.
What about the hockey?
Galli: In terms of hockey, of motivating them and pushing the girls to work hard, it's the same as boys. There's no difference in my approach to coaching boys or girls. You teach them to go to the net, and a hockey breakout play is still a breakout.
Read more at: Coaching girls no different than boys
