Why are some people special?

Okay, so I'll add to the hysteria of this 9-year old child from Maine doing a ridiculous display of skill on the ice.

I'll admit, I have never seen anything like it. I've seen a lot of hockey in Alaska, and a lot of NHL on TV. But this is crazy. How long does this kid practice that to a) be that good at that wraparound shot and b) have the confidence to do it on the ice while being filmed? NHL players can't do that. How does he?

Watching this made me think of one thing: how do some kids have so much more natural ability than others?

I mean, everyone's different -- I get it. Some kids can pound out their times tables in less than a minute. Some kids were the fastest ones to sprint across the field during recess -- I get that, too. But why do some kids get that rare combination of work ethic and raw athletic talent that others don't?

Sometimes it's obvious. When you have a pedigree, like him, it's easy to see where the talent emerges. But when you're right next to a future Marino throwing the football around at Pop Warner practice, there's something that separates him from you. I just don't know what it is.

Someone's going to say 'While you were inside studying for the SAT's, Derrick Rose was outside ballin'. That's BS. No matter how much you love sports, you can't screw around on the field or court all day. Everyone has other interests.

Another finger pointer will say 'It has to do with the way they were brought up.' Okay, so your family is too poor to get Wi-Fi and buy books from Barnes & Noble. But what does every American family have? A television. And you can bet that little white kids in upstate New York are watching the same Disney channel as kids in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco.

Then, the genetics types will say that blacks and hispanics have more fast-twitch muscle fiber, giving them an inherant athletic advantage. Okay, so they start with a leg up on other kids. But what gets them from being able to jump a little higher than everyone else to the next level? Nobody's making anyone do plyos before high school tryouts. They just show up like everyone else and dominate. Somehow there becomes a deliniation between the best and the rest.

What gets me is how unfair it is. If these future stars aren't hitting the weight room more than you or out shooting hoops alone (a la Hoosiers) to improve more often than you are, they shouldn't get the spoils you can't. Escalades, MTV video honeys and a job playing pro ball while the rest of us are blighted from succeess and have to get real jobs.

Now that I have vented on my inferiority complex enough, we can move on.

The poor goalie doesn't know what hit him either. Granted, I don't feel that badly for him. The videographers, coaches and parents in the stands were surely as dumbfounded by this move as he was. Nonetheless, you're digitally immortalized for getting pwned by your teammate. Not only does this kid throw snowballs at you on the way home from practice and is going to be a dynomite Juniors player, but he just rocked you on SportsCenter last night. Sucks, bro.