Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association: TEAM NEWS

THE PROVINCIALS

The Ontario Lacrosse Festival in Whitby is the largest youth Lacrosse event in North America, and for the boys, it’s comparable to them being in the Stanley Cup or World Series. The event includes much more than just the games, and I would recommend reading the fan guide on the website, which was just updated for 2011. The following is the link for that guide:

http://www.ontariolacrossefestival.com/content/pdf/2011%20Fan%20Guide.pdf

Because this event is the culmination of the boys’ Rep Lacrosse season, the Coaches have designed their practice sessions and season game strategies, so that the boys are prepped to be at their peak, in terms of teamwork and individual skills by July 31^st. You have heard Mike Walsh say that winning or losing during the season wasn’t all that important, as long as the boys learn and take away valuable experience from each win or loss. No one likes to lose, including Mike, but his goal is to arm the boys with every tactical advantage and skill enhancement for the Provincials. After all, who will remember our won/loss record if we gel as a team and do very well in the Provincials?

Few people remember how many wins and losses the Boston Bruins had during the season, but they remember that the Bruins gelled as a team and overcame adversity to win the Stanley Cup.

PROVINCIAL TYKE GAME SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED

The format is as follows:

3 pools of 4 teams

3 games played against opponents in your pool

Top 2 teams in pool advance to playoffs August 2^nd

We have been grouped in the following pool:

Group 2

Mimico

Toronto Beaches

Innisfil

Oakville

The other pools are as follows:

Group 1

Whitby

Centre Wellington

Brampton

Six Nations

Group 3

Orangeville

Peterborough

St Catherines

Clarington

Our games are as follows:

Sunday July 31^st 1:30PM against Innisfil at Mckinney Arena Pad 1

Sunday July 31^st 7:30PM against Mimico at Ajax Community Arena Pad 2

Monday Aug 1^st 2:30PM against Toronto Beaches at Rickard Arena Pad B

Tuesday Aug 2nd top 2 teams in each group advance to playoff games

HAWKS ALTERNATE SAM OSTAFIN WINS HOUSE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP AND PLAYER OF THE YEAR AND HE FIRES IN THREE GOALS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Recent Tyke 1 News

CLARINGTON TOURNAMENT

07/09/2011, 5:31pm EDT

By Brian

Details of the tournament have now been posted on Clarington’s website: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As_ZNimz6DTidFVsSlNTOFdYb2kzcmpmWFdvazRia1E&hl=en_US#gid=0

Here is the breakdown of our schedule:

GAME 1 Friday July 15^th 6PM at Rickard Arena (A) versus Peterborough

GAME 2 Saturday July 16^th 10:30AM at Courtice Arena versus Whitby

GAME 3 Saturday July 16^th 6PM at Rickard Arena (B) versus Caledon

Although they haven’t advised which Pool we are in, there are 8 Tyke A/B Teams, with 4 in each pool. The top 2 teams in each pool will advance to semi-finals Sunday morning at 9:30 & 10:00 at the 2 Rickards arenas, with the Championship final taking place at 2:15 at Rickard (A) Arena.

Drawing Whitby and Peterborough 2 tournaments in a row, seems a little strange-I’m beginning to wonder what’s up with that?

This is a list of the rest (other than us and the 3 teams we face) of the Tyke A/B teams competing:

Whitby B team

Clarington A team

Innisfil

Orangeville A team

HAWKS VERSUS TOMAHAWKS AT THE SAUNA BOWL

07/08/2011, 9:18am EDT

By Brian

Glen Abbey was steaming hot last night and the humidity had sweat dripping off my face and on to my stats sheet, so I can imagine how hot the boys must have been. To their credit, they endured, and although it was far from our best game, they defeated Mississauga 9 to 5.

It was a little strange watching this game, without Mike behind the bench, but Chris, Mike G. and Allan handled things very well. With two players away, Sam Ostafin answered the bell and filled in extremely well. He had a goal and an assist, was plus 1 on Loose Balls, and created no turnovers.

Brian Jackman was all over the floor, hammering out thundering checks, winning 8 of 9 face-offs, recovering Loose Balls (+8 on the night), scoring 3 goals and adding an assist. Talk about having your game face on for 45 minutes. Jake Dawick also scored 3 goals and added an assist.

While offensively, the team did reasonably well, we slipped back into some bad habits, regarding errant passes and not passing to the open man. Fortunately those lapses don't hurt us too badly against a team like Mississauga, but they are rated "B", and we won't get away with those tendencies against the big "A" clubs.

An interesting side note regarding these 2 teams. They both had 5 players and their Goalie at Lacrosse camp at Glen Abbey this week, so it must have felt a little strange for the boys facing their camp pals last night.

Revival Lacrosse Camp

07/05/2011, 3:17pm EDT

By Brian

The word from the boys attending camp is "AWESOME".

We have Dante Mancini, Carson Wiggins, Brian Jackman, Nathan Walsh, Nichoklas Hackl and Jake Dawick attending this year, and based on my observations and feedback from parents and players, we should ensure we get the boys registered again next year, and early, since it sells out quickly. The instruction and drills are helping the boys already, so it was a very wise investment.

You should have seen their faces at the end of day 2 when they were told they get to participate in a shootout against the Goalie from The Rochester Knighthawks. They had a blast, and some of them even scored on him.