Dec 30, 2011 | Scott Brown | 338 views
North Toronto Christmas Tournament
A very successful Christmas tournament had by all in the North Toronto Christmas Tournament.
We had a very successful tournament this past weekend in Toronto, with 2 ties and 2 loses the coaching staff was very happy with each player. Although we didn't make it to the finals the coaching staff was very pleased with what they saw. We have to remember, we were a bit short handed over this tournament with 2 other players missing with family commitments, we also had to deal with a little bug that deflated our line up from game to game. James, Stewart, Cohen and Camden were all under the weather throughout the tournament and missed some playing time but at some point each player played under the weather. This was true team commitment and the coaching staff thanks each player for trying their best. Having mentioned this, while we were missing 2 players throughout the tournament and missing another 1 or 2 players throughout the remaining games, all remaining players had to step up and play other roles, positions and handle extra ice time. As the Defensive Coach I have to thank, Jack, Blake, Jacob and Zack as these four players had to play a ton of extra ice time in all 4 games. I'm sure all players slept very well after the tournament I thank them all very much for the great effort.
The same thanks goes out to all the forwards for all their commitment and dedication, not one of the players complained about having to play extra roles or ice time, even the sick players said prior to games all that they wanted and were ready to play.......I think that's called team molding.
Congratulations goes out to Cohen, Jack and Camden for game MVP's for the first 3 games , the kids asked who was the MVP for the last game against Guelph, well that was a simple choice, the MVP went out to the entire team, the coaching staff couldn't have picked a better choice, congratulations to each player, great job.
The coaching staff's post game speech to the players was simple, we didn't have a great game against Guelph (I think a bit of exhaustion had a something to do with it) but we had a great tournament, we told them the good stuff we did and to remember that and keep it up, we also told them about some of the things that we need to work on to get better but most of all we told them were very proud of the effort and hard work they're all putting in and its paying off. Each player must continue to bring that work ethic to each and every practice and game. Our goal for the second half of the season is to continuously get better each shift, each period and each game and prepare ourselves for the playoffs.
Happy New Year to all players and their extended families, we wish you all the best in 2012, we'll see you in Burlington on January 7th for our 2:15pm game at the Appleby Ice Centre, come ready to play and lets start of 2012 on the winning side.
Coach Scott