Practice Time in the Last Week Before we Head to Canada

This is it. Our last week in Oregon before our trip to Pelham, Ontario! A small section of the team practiced yesterday for 2 hours on the ice. We had only 6 players and our goalie, but we made the best of our ice time. The rest of the team was away for the Holidays. Although we, as coaches, had wanted to get more ice time for the whole team before the Canada tournament, we were happy with the results of yesterday’s practice. We were able to spend one on one time with each of the kids. This allowed us to work on kid specific things. We left the choice up to the individual kid: what do you want to work on? It worked out well.

The conditioning was high too as with so few players, they ran through each team drill quickly which meant very little rest time in between runs. They worked hard and did well.

We will have a few more opportunities to get on the ice this week. I am encouraging all of the players to come to open stick time tonight as well as Saturday. We have dry land conditioning on Friday and one final practice on Sunday. This is our ice time and will be a full team practice.

I have encouraged the parents to talk with the kids and offer them extra emotional support as we get closer to the tournament. I imagine the kids might be nervous as this is a big deal. As I told the parents: “I go to win, but I will be proud of the kids and happy with them no matter what the scoreboard says. This is for them to have fun and an amazing life experience.” If you see any of the kids in this last week, please make sure they know you support them no matter what. The little extra support may be the difference in their experience.

Local News Covers Team

I am excited to say that our very own local sports director for NBC 5 in Medford, Joe Camarlinghi, showed up at our practice on Sunday and did a series of interviews with me as well as some of the players. He also filmed some ice time of the practice and made a sweet spot for the team that aired on the 6pm news on Fox Channel 26 (the sister station) and the 11pm news on NBC Channel 5

We very much appreciate the attention he gave our kids and the genuine excitement he showed while doing the interviews and presenting the spot during the sports round up. Joe is obviously a supporter of local champions and sports in general and we thank him for his support.

Excited About Our Progress

I am excited to see all of the support coming in for these amazing kids. Thanks to all of you who have donated your time, money, and support to the team. I know they appreciate it very much and I do too. Although I have been extremely busy preparing for the trip, the added help and support has made my job that much easier so thank you.

We will have practice this Sunday, our first on ice practice since the tournament. I look forward to reconnecting the group and working on fine tuning some of our game. We will likely work on our power play execution to make that an even more powerful special team. And of course: conditioning, conditioning, conditioning!

Andrew Morrison

Head Coach

Congratulations to our Champions!

Congratulations to all the kids on their magnificent victory in San Jose.  I knew we had a special team, but I must admit I am still spinning a bit from the tournament win.  I knew we had a chance of winning and yet did not imagine we would sweep the entire tournament and walk away undefeated while also having the top ranks of the score sheet in our column.  Truly we are the elite Southern Oregon Pee Wee Travel Team!   There is much to do in preparation for the Canada trip.  But first, some stats to continue the celebration.

This is so fantastic and I am so proud of each of the players for their contribution to the over all team effort and success.  We are one of a VERY select few teams that can boast that ALL of their team members have points on the scoresheet.  Please be sure that all the kids know how special this is.  I will sure make a point of this tonight at practice.

Of course games are not won by only scoring goals.  Defensively, we are the second best team in the league allowing an average of only 16 shots per game.  Match this with the leading Goal Keeper, and we are a defensive force beyond any other team.  I was so proud of our team defensively this tournament.  I watched them execute exactly what we have been teaching them all season: strong backchecking and defensive support.  By out shooting our opponents and shutting the door defensively, we were able to match and/or dominate the teams we played.  There is not a specific statistic on the official scoresheet for defensive play, so you will have to take my word for it: we are an awesome defensive team. Great thanks and appreciation to our blue liners Dylan Wu, Jake Benson, Jacob Asbeck and Jeremy Wu, along with all of our backchecking forwards.

I’d like to give a special acknowledgment to Chase and Lindsey Courtney and Jasper Weatherby for their willingness to support our team in the finals without seeing much or any ice time.  I understand that is a difficult thing for many kids to do as they all want to give their best efforts on the ice as part of our team.  I want to say here what I said to Chase in the locker room yesterday.  The members of the third line are a very important part of this team whether they play or not.  Their support and enthusiasm off the ice are equally as important as their presence on the ice.  As I said earlier, every single one of our players is on the scoresheet.  Out of 71 teams, only 18 teams can claim this statistic and 15 of those are rated as A level teams.  Goes to show how powerful this statistic is!  We got to the finals with the help of the third line on and off the ice and they continued to help by supporting their team from the bench.  A heartfelt thank you to each of them for this emotionally difficult job.

Another great thanks goes out to Jeanne and Crystal for all of their hard work behind the scenes.  I am clear that without their help and dedication we probably would never have been in the tournament in the first place!  They are the unsung heroes of the team.  I hope you each have a chance to share some thanks and love with them for their hard work.

Now for the next step.  We have been officially invited to the finals in Canada. We will be going to Pelham, Ontario Canada with tournament dates of January 8-11, 2009.  I recognize that this is not a lot of time for us to raise the funds necessary for us to get there and participate in the tournament.  That said, I am confident that we can make it happen.

More later!
Andrew

Andrew Morrison
Head Coach