Topher Scott/Schafer podcast

Since we have a long break before the season resumes, I recommend listening to Schafer being interviewed on Topher Scott's podcast. It's interesting to hear Schafer talk about his emphasis on defense, the negative effect of parental involvement -- even at the collegiate level, and how one player went from being a team leader to being a video game addict.

Topher Scott has become a pretty fair analyst of the game for players and for fans.

Parental over-involvement: Yeah, horrible, you're probably an absentee parent more than you think, so why try to reconnect with your kid when there's a coach giving him or her some quality time? I spent 10 years on the sidelines or behind the glass photographing our sons and their teams. That's the coach's two hours, not mine. Somebody else's kid once asked our son, Didn't your dad get the urge to tell you what to do? Our son said, Never, I think maybe one time he said Nice Play. But my mom in the stands, I could hear her.

Worst game ever, state HS lax championship and we're losing. More badly that we thought possible. One of the fathers who'd been berating the refs and the opponents comes to the chain link fence - sadly, not electrified - and starts to berate our team's play, exempting only his son. Ref stops the game, tells dad to return to the states or he'll stop the game until dad leaves the stadium. Maybe that kind of conduct comes standard with owning a Porsche Panamera.

A business friend coached in the EMass youth hockey league where one dad killed another.