17-18 PeeWee AE | Oct 24, 2017 | Cory Schepers | 1346 views
Hardship Acres Peewee Tournament Weekend
This past weekend the Hardship Acres Peewee AE team travelled to St Marys for the first tournament of the year. After starting the season 2-1 and playing some good hockey with the team firing on all cylinders there was hope the chance would be there to bring home some hardware. There were a lot of good teams going and the first obstacle we needed to overcome was a tough schedule. Our first game being 10:15am on the Friday morning causing parents to take time off work yet still be up at 5:30am to make the 3 hour trek to St Marys but then having our second game of the day at 9:15pm makes for a very long day on these young players.
Once at the rink the players were ready to play. After a good warm up outside in the sunshine they had some blood flow return to their legs and they were ready to go. Our first game was against Listowel and we came out full speed ahead. From start to finish we controlled most of the play but struggled when it came to putting the puck into the net. In the end the hard work paid off and we were able to walk away with an opening win beating Listowel 1-0.
The question next was how do we kill the next 10 hours before the next hockey game? The suggestions of pre game naps, resting and relaxing was proposed to the players but that was quickly shrugged off to after lunch and we get checked into the pool lets have a belly flop contest in the pool and swim for the afternoon. And that was what they did. Four hours of team building, fun and big splashed lead us into a team pizza dinner before we had to prepare for game 2 against Mitchell. We were unsure what to expect with the kids having been up over 15 hours and having a full day of running around and getting to know each other but in the end they put all they had left in the tank out there. Once again we struggled putting the puck in the net or creating quality scoring chances but worked hard in a 1-0 loss. Good news being we weren't out of the tournament but had time to sleep in as our third game was not scheduled until 5:30pm the next day. Back to the hotel for a good night sleep we went and prepared for the next day.
Again we had some time to kill until the evening game so after breakfast it was back to the pool for most of these young players. While thee we realized we were in for a treat as it was found that there was bowling alley less than a block away. Little did any of the players or coaching staff know but Assistant Coach Jeff Pickering is a self proclaimed bowling expert and even has a patented move with the largest leg kick known to man. Jeff graciously challenged the boys to a couple games of bowling. After instructing the kids on how to avoid getting kicked in the head when bowling on the lane beside they were ready to go. As they started you could see the players a couple lanes over who were vying for the league championship that day watching and taking notes on Jeff's somewhat unorthodox bowling technique. There were two hard fought games where Jeff barely even hit the gutter bumpers but in the end he was unable to be victorious as these 11 and 12 year olds had no mercy and three of them were able to post better scores than their mentor. Great bowling by all but Nikolas, Ty and Jake all focused and managed to teach the teacher how it was done. Jeff did state it was more difficult bowling without his favourite beverage and was disappointed but took the loss in stride and walked out of the bowling alley with his head held high!
After the bowling was done it was time to head to game 3 and see if we can somehow punch our ticket into the semi finals. This would be our toughest contest yet as we faced Ilderton who had handled their first two opponents quite easily. You could see form the puck drop that every one of our players were ready to play. There was no quit in these boys and the effort was 110% from start to finish. We were able to control the play for extended periods of time but between good goaltending on Ilderton and some bad luck we just weren't able to put any away again. In the end we lost 3-0 to the eventual undefeated tournament champions. It was a great game and tournament for the boys and they should be proud of how they played as they get back into the regular season and plan to build on their 2-1 record.
If you are looking to watch some exciting hockey please come out and support the Hardship Acres Peewee AE team as they always put on an exciting show and would love your support. Please look at the website calendar and plan a day out to cheer on these young Coyotes through the year as they won't disappoint.