Heading ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’ Pingree School’s Trevor Leahy set his mind to recouping any advantage that he could achieve within the rules. Hockey rules recently mandated smaller sizes for hockey net minder pads. While the offensively minded thought this a great idea (goalie pads were starting to cover far too much of the net face), goalies, like Trevor, were miffed asking why should the net-minders give-up their advantages?

If a skater can tape his stick blade with black tape in order to hide the puck, Treavor reasoned, I should be able to paint and design my pads with the design of the goal net so as to confuse skaters about the edges of my pads.

A patent application and a deal with Stomp Manufacturing later, and the GoalieFlage is a reality.

There’s no way to measure the effectiveness of the design, but one teammate tells the New York Times (Against Goalie Trevor Leahy, It’s Nothing but Net) that he finds the design effective by disorienting his shooting.

As for Trevor, he’s now pondering a career in sports marketing or design.  As he told the Times:

“It would be unbelievable to get some kind of job out of this…I would love to get my stuff out there and then see other kids wearing it and think, wow, I designed that.” (NYT)

Let’s hope the hockey powers-that-be don’t send Teavor’s creative thinking the way of the A-11 football offense or Steve Avery’s antics.  Creativity makes the game fun.