Jan 14, 2019 | Coline Shennan | 1690 views
Novice AA Takes Silver
On Sunday, January 13th, In the hallway of Preston
Arena the Whitby Wildcats Novice AA team could be heard chanting “Work hard,
get the puck”. Parental group and
supporters gathered up above listening to these young men preparing themselves for
their final battle of the tournament.
This moment was a culmination of the weekly practices, league games and previous tournament experiences. If you were to ask a member of our team our motto, they would say, “We never lose, we either win or learn”. The boys have learned to persevere, battle back, to cheer on their teammates and congratulate their opponents. They have learned how to work hard, but most importantly they have learned that there is no “I” in team.
Whitby Novice AA is a hockey family. Together they win games-through D to D passing, back checking, breaking out, cross ice passing, tipping, holding the blue or defending their goalies. This past weekend in Preston the boys collected another silver medal because of their strengths in a tough OT loss to the Meadowvale Hawks.
The tournament was another opportunity for our goalies Lukas Butler and James Bruce to demonstrate how spectacular they are. Together their GAA was less then 1 goal a game which speaks for itself. Three games were complete shutouts while two other games went into overtime.
Defence and positional play has become a noticeable trademark of the Whitby squad this season and defencemen Gryson Gill, Porter Bridge, Jason Feeney, Bryce Estabrooks, Oliver Campbell and John Shennan anchored the club this weekend allowing only 5 oppositional goals in six games.
The forwards on the team Ronan Tierney, Gabe Napoleone, Tristan Endicott, Andon Weglowski, Jackson Knowles, Ewan Fisher-Brown, Colton Boyle, Lucas Hudson and Christos Hague are to be congratulated for their dedication, hard work and commitment in driving the O zone, back checking and their teamwork.
The coaching staff led by Head Coach Don Campbell, Assistants Adam Brown and Dallas Knowles and Trainers Brian Boyle and Neil Endicott have done an amazing job this season teaching the boys to not only become effective hockey players but more importantly acquire those attributes of leadership and responsibility necessary in life. They were particularly pleased to see many of the drills, strategies and skills they have employed in practice and throughout their tournaments and league games being implemented.
The Whitby Novice AA Hockey team would like to thank all their sponsors Vector Corrosion Technologies; Barnes Memorial; Dave Morrison of Homelife Reality; Durham Total Sports; Venice Construction; Fabris Iron Works; York Sheet Metal; Sky Rise Drywall and The Tire Depot whose generous donations enable our boys to enjoy all these hockey experiences. We would also like to thank our mentor Kevin Rodgers and all the parents for their boisterous and continued support.