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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2006-12-20, Page 25Wednesday, December 20, 2006 TIMES -ADVOCATE 25 Huron -Perth Lakers continue to improve EXETER — Once again, the Times - Advocate is pleased to profile some of the best young hockey talent playing in the Huron Perth Lakers AAA orga- nization. Here are local players from the Minor Atom, Major Peewee and Major Midget teams. Information on the remaining AAA teams was not avaliable at the time the T -A went to press. Age level: Minor Atom Coach: Jack Chaffe Last season's record and playoff result (if any): N/A Current record: Overall 19-10-4. League 12-6-1 What are your teams strengths? Skating, overall depth and team play as well as well rounded staff. This is the strongest Minor Atom team to date in the Laker orga- nization. What are your team's weaknesses? Inconsistent play. Home games are good, away games are fair to good. What did you learn from the inaugural year? You have to be dedi- cated to the program whether you are a coach player or parent. It is a great program. Any changes this year? What are they? No, this is the first year for this team. Any special chal- lenges your players have had to overcome in the first year? Coming from different centres, you have to develop team play. No one player stands out, it takes a team effort. Travelling more than one and half hours to away games and getting physically and mentally prepared for games. Tell me briefly about the play- ers from the T -A readership area (Exeter, Lucan, Zurich, Stephen Township, Grand Bend, D ashwood, H e n s a 1 1, Centralia, H uronPark, Crediton, Varna, Brucefield, etc.). Cullen Mercer is one of our top scorers. He is a great two-way player and a good team leader. His skating has improved to be one of our strongest skaters. Brandon Willis is con- stantly one of the hard- est workers with a quick release on his shot. What are the team's goals this season? We want to develop team play and a nucle- us of players for the future. We also want to have fun in the game we love to play and watch. What has been the highlight of the season so far? It was the Nov. 11 win over London 4-3 to move us into first place for a short time. What is the differ- ence between playing rep hockey and AAA? The speed of the games and the skill level. Everyone is dedicated to becoming a better hockey player and developing to be the best they can be. Additional comments: As a first year coach with the Huron -Perth lakers it is the enjoy- ment of helping the players develop into a great team and making new friends. Age level: Major Peewee players born in 1994 Coach: Glenn Coghlin, St Marys Last season's record and playoff result (if any):N/A Current record: 25 wins, seven losses, five ties What are your teams strengths? A very fast team, that can wear down the opposition with con- stant pressure. We have six big, strong mobile defencemen What are your team's weaknesses? We lack some size in our for- ward positions. What did you learn from the inaugural year? First year with the 94 Lakers Any changes Cullen Mercer Brandon Willis this year? What are they? We have added three new players to the 94 Lakers who are Scott Coghlin from St Marys, Brady Wiffen from St Marys and Nick Elliott from Bayfield. Any special challenges your players have to over- come? We have cur- rently three play- ers out with injuries. Two will be out six to eight weeks and one should be back by mid December. Tell me briefly about the players from the T -A readership area. Our players are scat- tered evenly through- out the Huron -Perth Region along with Ryan Watson from Zurich. What are the team's goals this season? Our goals are simple, enjoy playing the game at a high level, improve individual skills through practice and hard work. Win the next shift that you play. What has been the highlight of the season so far? We traveled to Chicago to play in the Mission tournament. The boys had a great time. What is the differ- ence between playing rep hockey and AAA? Triple A allows the players to play against the best players that are in their age group. The amount of time they are on the ice is far greater at the AAA Level leading to greater skill development. Additional comments: We have been very pleased with the move to the Laker organiza- tion. The players still rep- resent their home cen- ters. The home centres should feel great pride in the players that they have developed and have moved into the AAA group. Age level: Major Midget, 89-90 birth years, 16-17 years old Coaches: Jamie Thomas of Brussels, Jeff Cranston of Lucknow and Rick Brown of Hanover. Last season's record and playoff result (if any): There was no Major Midget team last season. The minor midgets lost in the League semi- finals to London. We currently have eight players from that team. Note that to my knowledge, there has not been a Lakers major midget team since the inaugural 95- 96 season. (coach Thomas played on that team) Current record: 13-5- 1 (second in West Division, third in the league) What are your team's strengths? Skating. We are one of the faster teams in the league and are able to win a lot of races to loose pucks. This also allows us to be a strong forechecking team and makes us very dangerous on the transition from defence to offence. Goaltending. We feel that both of our goaltenders are capable of winning Ryan Watson games on their own. Both have AAA experi- ence, with one being a OHL draft pick to Owen Sound. Discipline. We have been the least penal- ized team in every game that we've played this season. This has allowed us to score many of our goals on the power play. Bench Experience. Our coaching staff is relatively experienced. Head coach Thomas has spent the last four years as a head coach and assistant coach at the Junior B and Junior C levels. Coach Brown has over 20 years of coaching experience, having worked at the AAA and junior levels. Cranston recently won a provincial champi- onship last season, as a head coach with Lucknow Minor Hockey. What are your team's weaknesses? Size. We have sacri- ficed size for speed. This means we don't win as many battles along the boards. This also could be a contributing factor to our injury problems this season. That being said, size isn't as big of a factor with the new rule emphasis, and has worked in our favour at times. Experience. We origi- nally signed 19 players at the beginning of the season. Only nine players had AAA experience includ- ing just six from last years minor midget team. Two of those were drafted to the OHL and three from the Grey Bruce AAA program. We had 10 players with no previ ous AAA expe- rience, but did have two more from the Stratford AA minor midgets. Since then we've signed two more players with AAA experi- ence playing with the Lakers minor midgets last season. One started the year playing major midget AA in Stratford and the other began the season playing Junior D in Mitchell. What did you learn from the inaugural year? N/A Any changes this year? What are they? Junior Development. We are more focused on developing and pro- moting our players to the next level. We have many play- ers on our team who are affiliating with area junior teams, and have been playing games at both the Junior B and Junior C levels. The team plays three 20 minute periods, which is new to all of our players this season. We also run a full 20 - man roster, although we have yet to dress a full bench yet this sea- son. This allows an easier transition into junior hockey next year. Systems. Our coach- ing staff has more of a systems approach to the game and our play- ers have been learning a lot of new systems and tactics. This should make the team more prepared for the playoffs and also give each player a better understanding of the game. Any special chal- lenges your players have to overcome? Injuries. We have yet to dress a full 20 -man roster in a game. We've had as many as five players out with injuries in a game. We've lost one player for the whole season already, and had to replace him by signing a player from the Stratford AA program. Learning Systems. Because of our players, lack of experience many of them have not been exposed to the systems that we've been using this season. It is taking the team more time to get used to this new style of hockey, but in the end, it should make us a stronger team, as the other top teams in the league are very strong systems teams. Tell me briefly about the players from the T -A readership area . JJ Sparling from Varna is just returning from a broken collar- bone, JJ is a val- ued checking for- ward, who is expected to pro- duce more offen- sively this season than he has in the past. JJ is a big part of our team's penalty killing Jo J.J.Sparling unit. What are the team's goals this season? Win the league and make it to Central Canadian Regionals. Note that Midget AAA is the only level of AAA that has a national championship. What has been the highlight of the season so far? Being ranked in the top 20 in the country and top 10 in the province. We are currently ranked in the top 35 in Canada and top 15 in Ontario. Montreal Tournament. Our team was exposed to a high- er level of AAA hockey in Quebec, which has helped us set our goals higher and allowed us to improve our work ethic. It was a very valuable learning expe- rience. We've been invited to play in the International Silverstick tournament in Sarnia, Jan. 19-21. What is the differ- ence between playing rep hockey and AAA? Commitment is the biggest difference. Our players are treated like junior players and have a lot more responsibili- ty. We practice at least twice a week, including off -ice plyometric train- ing before practices. Players arrive at the rink at least an hour before every ice time. Our team is usually on the ice four times a week and our players are expected to have a much better under- standing of the game. Our players all want to move on to junior hockey within a year or two. Because of this we all have higher expecta- tions with regards to work ethic, knowledge of the game, skill devel- opment, and attitude. Additional comments: We are very pleased with what we have accomplished so far this season, as we have surpassed many peo- ple's expectations. We have attracted a lot of attention from junior teams so far this season and hope that trend continues. We have put much higher expectations on ourselves, and hope to step up our game, as playoffs approach. We feel that we have the ability to be the top team in our league and can compete for an Alliance Championship. J7/1Y1 PA)