�I started with Peewees, Bantams, and Midgets,� says Burns, �(before) going on to Major Junior hockey, which is more of a business. It�s not really youth hockey. (But) Peewee, Bantam and Midget�that�s more of the recreational thing for the youngsters, although it depends whether you work at an elite level or a participation level.

�I worked in the elite level most of the time,� says Burns, recalling the quality of player he coached. �You�d see the kids starting in Peewee (and) you could almost see them going all the way to the NHL.�

Of course, not all hockey dreams come true, something youth coaches and parents must remember. Burns believes that even with promising athletes a youth coach has an obligation to keep a level head�that to do otherwise is a disservice to the young player.

�You start seeing around the age of 15 or 16 whether a kid is going to have any chance to be able to get (to the NHL). But remember, only like one in a thousand kids makes it. So you have to be careful not to make the kid believe that he�s going to play in the National Hockey League.�

That�s not to say that a youth hockey coach can�t have an impact.

�You help the kid along, and if there�s any potential talent that you can see, that you can guide a little bit�and maybe help the parents along, too. But it�s a very dangerous thing to tell a kid he�s going to make it.

�We�ve heard this story many times: that if this kid had a chance he could have made it; that if this kid had a break he could have made it. Well, no. If the kid had been good enough, he would have made it.�

These are words that stem from ex-perience. It was after returning from the St. Louis Blues training camp that Burns, then a Major Junior player, realized he would never be good enough to compete at the NHL level. So he quit hockey and became a cop. But once he got back into the game�he stood in behind the bench for a sick friend in the early 1970s, and has been coaching ever since�his awareness of hockey�s real world made him a better coach.

Burns emphasizes that parents are often guilty of filling their children with dreams of grandeur, and adds with a laugh the best thing they can do to help a kid enjoy youth hockey: �Leave them alone!� But many parents don�t.

�That�s a problem in minor hockey, that the parents want to overcoach or�you hate to say over-encourage�but sometimes it�s true.� And Burns says even one parent�s overzealousness can have a devastating effect on a team, and a coach.

�If you criticize the coach in front of the child, that�s going to reflect itself, because the kid�s going to tell his teammates, �Well, my dad said (the coach) doesn�t know what he�s talking about.�

�When a coach is put at a minor league level, there�s a confidence you have to give him at that point. The people who put him there obviously have screened (him) and decided he knows what he�s doing.

�I think what the parents tend to do�because of the illustrious million-dollar careers now�the parents would love to see one of their kids get right in there, and say �Hey, my son�s going to make a million dollars a year.� And they want to push it.

�That�s where the stories often start of �this guy could have made it if he�d had a break.� Well, as I said, I completely rub that one out. If he�s good and he has the drive, he�s going to make it. And parents sometimes forget that. They prefer to think that their kids were somehow overlooked, badly coached, or badly managed.�

Yet a good hockey parent is the most important element in any kid�s playing experience.

�A child loves to play hockey when his parents or family are present. (When) he does something good, he needs that kind of encouragement. But he doesn�t need the distraction of being discouraged through parents who get up and call referees expletives and call other kids expletives.

�You can�t do that in minor hockey.�