Life after the Early Bird Tournament :)
Dear Team and Parents,
Well I have to admit after Sunday mornings loss it took me a day or two to bounce back from the boys not advancing to play Barrie. We would have gave them a great game!
The coaching staff and I were very proud of how well the team played taking into account the limited practice time and new introduction to body contact. The team showed positive signs throughout the tournament as they performed many of our new systems/plays throughout the games. It's also important to mention that the team did not suffer any injuries or respond with any retaliatory penalties showing signs of physical / mental toughness and team discipline. Those foundation attributes are definitely something we can build from.
Arriving at the arena Tuesday night was awesome as players all arrived on time with excitement and energy to participate in our first player/coach meeting. The boys discussed their meaning of Perfect Effort and designed our teams protocols to guide us through the season. This guide will be discussed further with the boys and then documented and distributed to all. We made this process fun, all had a voice and an opinion as they contributed to the process, showing signs of a growing maturity.
Moving forward we will be adding 2 practices to our schedule before our season opener, keep an eye open for an email. During the last practice we worked on 2-1's, driving the net with a purpose, creating a lane to make a pass and the importance of making it count when the opportunity is there. We also worked on killing penalties, creating and maintaining a flowing box, not chasing and overcommitting. This was an issues in the tournament and it cost us a few times. We will continue to work on our offense and defense systems, striving to keep pucks out and put more in, making adjustments game by game.
Keep up the great work boys!
Coach Jamie