If we divide our season like a five act play it allows our players to focus on short term segments of an otherwise very long season. It also enables our coaches to set important objectives for each segment of the season, and monitor progress through identifiable performance standards.
As our team prepares to play in the Border City Cup Tournament this weekend we reach the "Border" of Act 2 in our five act season-long play, which in its entirety, consists of the following:
Act 1: Training Camp: Early August: Time to get our players in shape, improve their skills, put together our roster, and set the tone for the type of work ethic we expect from our players at practices both on and off the ice.
Act 2: Preseason: Mid-August to the MWEHL season begins: Time to test our team in real game action and make evaluations of our player personnel, our team character, and the strengths and weaknesses of each player and our team in general.
Act 3: Regular Season Phase A: From the start of the MWEHL season through December 31: Time to become battle tested and showcase our players to scouts and recruiters while playing the best possible competition we can in our league, exhibition games, and high-end tournaments. Work on making our strengths stronger and turning our weaknesses into strengths ... or at least eliminating our weaknesses.
Act 4: Regular Season Phase B: From January 1 to the end of the MWEHL Regular Season: Time to come together as one unit with all our players pulling on the same rope in the same direction. We want to constantly improve and peak as a team in terms of our execution and winning. This is the time when we develop a clear picture of what is "Belle Tire Wizards Hockey" so that each player fully understands what, and how, we must play for us to be successful.
Act 5: Playoffs: Postseason State and National Playoffs: Time to catch lightning in a bottle. Hopefully our players are injury free and have enough juice in their legs to execute "Belle Tire Wizards Hockey" at the top of our game. Goaltending becomes most key in the playoffs. If we can execute our game, outwork our opponents, play smart, play together, get great goaltending, as well as those proverbial lucky bounces, then maybe....just maybe... Belle Tire Midget Minor might repeat as Michigan State and National Champions.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Exhibition Games Notes
Sunday we wrapped up the third of three exhibition games over the last two weekends with a 6-0 win over the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Previous scores included a 4-3 win over Grand Rapids and 5-5 tie against Team Ohio (who tied the score against us with 3.7 seconds left in the game).
For the three games combined we posted an incredible 204 shots with 49 shots against (71 to 17 versus Grand Rapids, 63 to 25 versus Team Ohio, and 70-7 versus Cincinnati).
Hopefully more of our shots will start finding the back of the net in our games ahead.
Previous scores included a 4-3 win over Grand Rapids and 5-5 tie against Team Ohio (who tied the score against us with 3.7 seconds left in the game).
For the three games combined we posted an incredible 204 shots with 49 shots against (71 to 17 versus Grand Rapids, 63 to 25 versus Team Ohio, and 70-7 versus Cincinnati).
Hopefully more of our shots will start finding the back of the net in our games ahead.
2007-2008 Team Captains Announced
Voting for captains are now complete and we're happy to announce the results of the selection of our Captains for the 2007-2008 Fall Season.
Captains are Nick Paluch and Alex Frere, and Alternate Captains are Cody Donnay and Dean Pawlacyzk.
Congratulations Guys!
Captains are Nick Paluch and Alex Frere, and Alternate Captains are Cody Donnay and Dean Pawlacyzk.
Congratulations Guys!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Soundoff From Fans Across The World
Click on the little Clustermaps Image on the lower right-side area of this website and you can view where the over 13,000 visitors to our team blog in the last 4 months are located.
Several of our biggest fans who live in the farthest reaches of the world have sent us some very interesting comments and suggestions. Here is a small sampling from the hundreds of e-mails we have recently received.
Sergio from Italy writes: Dear GM, I am a huge Belle Tire Wizards fan and stay up all night to listen to your games on satellite radio in Italy. I hear about shot after shot after shot for Belle Tire but not much is going in. Maybe players need to eat more pasta for more energy. By the way I got some "boys" over there in Detroit on the eastside, let me know if you have any issues with those referees ... we can fix dat problem...badaboom.
Amanda from New Zealand writes: Dear GM, I am president of the Belle Tire Wizards fan club at our high school here in New Zealand. We have no ice hockey team so our school has kinda adopted Belle Tire as our team. Could you please post up head shots of all your players on the blog. Also maybe you guys could do a team swimsuit calendar as a fundraiser, that would be really cool. PS. Could I please get Austin Czarnik's phone number .... he's my favorite.
Finally, Rahul from India writes: Dear GM, I am the editor of a men's style magazine here in India. One of our writers is a huge Belle Tire Wizards fan and brought to work a picture of coach Jabar. We took an instant interest in his unique hairstyle. Could you please send us some detailed information on how often he gets his hair done, what kind of color treatments he receives, how long it takes him to style his hair in the morning, and what grooming products, tools, and appliances he uses. We are planning to run a feature article on Jabar and his special hairstyle in our November Issue. Thanks and go Belle Tire!.
Several of our biggest fans who live in the farthest reaches of the world have sent us some very interesting comments and suggestions. Here is a small sampling from the hundreds of e-mails we have recently received.
Sergio from Italy writes: Dear GM, I am a huge Belle Tire Wizards fan and stay up all night to listen to your games on satellite radio in Italy. I hear about shot after shot after shot for Belle Tire but not much is going in. Maybe players need to eat more pasta for more energy. By the way I got some "boys" over there in Detroit on the eastside, let me know if you have any issues with those referees ... we can fix dat problem...badaboom.
Amanda from New Zealand writes: Dear GM, I am president of the Belle Tire Wizards fan club at our high school here in New Zealand. We have no ice hockey team so our school has kinda adopted Belle Tire as our team. Could you please post up head shots of all your players on the blog. Also maybe you guys could do a team swimsuit calendar as a fundraiser, that would be really cool. PS. Could I please get Austin Czarnik's phone number .... he's my favorite.
Finally, Rahul from India writes: Dear GM, I am the editor of a men's style magazine here in India. One of our writers is a huge Belle Tire Wizards fan and brought to work a picture of coach Jabar. We took an instant interest in his unique hairstyle. Could you please send us some detailed information on how often he gets his hair done, what kind of color treatments he receives, how long it takes him to style his hair in the morning, and what grooming products, tools, and appliances he uses. We are planning to run a feature article on Jabar and his special hairstyle in our November Issue. Thanks and go Belle Tire!.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Team Notes
Comings: Rusty Hafner rejoins our team's active roster after being put on the inactive list for the Joe Maire Tournament weekend in order to play high school football. Hafner who assures us that he is a standout linebacker was "instrumental" in holding the opposition to under 50 points in his team's 50-47 win - a defensive struggle for the ages. Its a good thing Rusty was there to bolster his team's defense or the other team may have put up a 60 spot on them in his absence.....(hey Rusty what kind of defense is that?).
Goings: Caught in a numbers crunch at our forwards position Matt Stemkoski has left the team and will join the Honeybaked Organization. Matt is an excellent player and person from a great family. We wish him much success. With Matts' departure, Evan Johnston takes over jersey #14 on our team's roster.
Callups: Forward James Poston has been called up to Chris Coury's Midget Majors for Belle Tire's two game home series with the Marquette Electricians in MWHEL play this weekend. Good Luck James we will be watching. The move of James to the Midget Majors has cleared the way for Ivan Gaydayenko to rejoin the active roster for our games against Grand Rapids and Team Ohio this weekend. Gaydayenko who did not make the trip to the Joe Maire Tournament played in 1 game for the Rochester Rattlers Midget A team over that weekend and scored both goals in the Rattlers 2-1 victory.
Close To Return: Garrett Ross appears to be close to returning to game action. Ross, injured in a bizarre 4-wheeler incident in late-July, is expected to rejoin our team for full game action for the Border City Cup Tournament. A goal scoring sniper who is rated by The Scouting News as the 113th best 1992 birthyear player in North America, Ross will add grit and scoring punch to our forwards unit that, although very deep and talented, has struggled to produce goals in the early portion of the season at our anticipated level.
Name Game: We have six 91's on our team. All of their names end as LandER, HafnER, TillER, and ShattER along with PosTON and JohsTON. Is this a mere coincidence? And although a previous blog post satire joked that Rusty Hafner is a relative of Cleveland Indians Slugger Travis Hafner, Goalie Brach Tiller is actually the great nephew of Purdue University Head Football Coach Joe Tiller, and Forward Nick Booth claims to actually be a distant relative of the infamous John Wilks Booth.
Amazing Turnaround: In March of 2006 the 1992 Belle Tire team wrapped up its 0 - 28 MWEHL record in a season which saw them score only 29 goals and give up well over 200. Fast forward 18 months later to this week when the Belle Tire Midget Minor team comprised of a core group of sixteen 1992 birthyear players has earned the current ranking of 7th best Midget Minor team in North America. Thats one amazing turnaround.
Goings: Caught in a numbers crunch at our forwards position Matt Stemkoski has left the team and will join the Honeybaked Organization. Matt is an excellent player and person from a great family. We wish him much success. With Matts' departure, Evan Johnston takes over jersey #14 on our team's roster.
Callups: Forward James Poston has been called up to Chris Coury's Midget Majors for Belle Tire's two game home series with the Marquette Electricians in MWHEL play this weekend. Good Luck James we will be watching. The move of James to the Midget Majors has cleared the way for Ivan Gaydayenko to rejoin the active roster for our games against Grand Rapids and Team Ohio this weekend. Gaydayenko who did not make the trip to the Joe Maire Tournament played in 1 game for the Rochester Rattlers Midget A team over that weekend and scored both goals in the Rattlers 2-1 victory.
Close To Return: Garrett Ross appears to be close to returning to game action. Ross, injured in a bizarre 4-wheeler incident in late-July, is expected to rejoin our team for full game action for the Border City Cup Tournament. A goal scoring sniper who is rated by The Scouting News as the 113th best 1992 birthyear player in North America, Ross will add grit and scoring punch to our forwards unit that, although very deep and talented, has struggled to produce goals in the early portion of the season at our anticipated level.
Name Game: We have six 91's on our team. All of their names end as LandER, HafnER, TillER, and ShattER along with PosTON and JohsTON. Is this a mere coincidence? And although a previous blog post satire joked that Rusty Hafner is a relative of Cleveland Indians Slugger Travis Hafner, Goalie Brach Tiller is actually the great nephew of Purdue University Head Football Coach Joe Tiller, and Forward Nick Booth claims to actually be a distant relative of the infamous John Wilks Booth.
Amazing Turnaround: In March of 2006 the 1992 Belle Tire team wrapped up its 0 - 28 MWEHL record in a season which saw them score only 29 goals and give up well over 200. Fast forward 18 months later to this week when the Belle Tire Midget Minor team comprised of a core group of sixteen 1992 birthyear players has earned the current ranking of 7th best Midget Minor team in North America. Thats one amazing turnaround.
Saturday Game Time Notice
Please note that Saturday's game time against Grand Rapids has been changed to 3:00 PM to accommodate the Marquette Electricians Midget Major team that is is travelling to Taylor to play the Belle Tire Midget Major team (ice times have been flipped).
Thursday, September 20, 2007
North American Midget Minor Ranking is #7 by The Scouting News
The Scouting News online publication recently ranked the top Midget Minor teams in North America.
The major caveat to their ranking format was that based on the Canadian single birthyear system a United States-based team must have at least 75% of its roster as 1992 birthyear players in order to qualify.
Our team currently holds the #7 ranking. Early season opponents Compuware at #1, York Simcoe at #8, and Elgin-Middlesex at #9 from the Joe Maire Tournament, plus upcoming opponent in the Border City Cup Tournament the Rochester Alliance at #6 were listed in the publication's top 10.
The major caveat to their ranking format was that based on the Canadian single birthyear system a United States-based team must have at least 75% of its roster as 1992 birthyear players in order to qualify.
Our team currently holds the #7 ranking. Early season opponents Compuware at #1, York Simcoe at #8, and Elgin-Middlesex at #9 from the Joe Maire Tournament, plus upcoming opponent in the Border City Cup Tournament the Rochester Alliance at #6 were listed in the publication's top 10.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Challenge Issued To Forwards
Our 2006-07 Belle Tire Wizards team featured arguably the MWEHL most explosive group of scoring forwards.
Not a particularly strong team defensively, the 06-07 squad relied on outscoring teams and routinely netted 5 or more goals per game with several games of 7 and 8 goals against some of the best teams in the United States.
In 06-07 all 9 forwards on our team finished in the top 43 players in the league in scoring with 6 forwards ranking in the league's top 20. The team featured three equally balanced forwards lines and all 9 forwards on the team scored between 20 goals and 31 goals.
However, through 9 games this season our forwards have combined to score a paltry 23 goals for a goals per game average as a unit of approximately 2.5 per game. While our defensemen and goaltenders have been outstanding in their performance and have met or exceeded expectations thus far, our forwards must pick it up - now.
Our entire unit of talented forwards needs to start forechecking harder and driving to the net more agressively to cause turnovers, create scoring chances, and hunt for rebounds and tip ins. Too much perimeter play and not enough aggressive play on the forecheck and in front of the opponents net has been our team's #1 deficiency so far this season.
The coaches are issuing a challenge to the entire forward unit to start doing what is needed to increase goal production to an output level that corresponds with their significant talent level.
Not a particularly strong team defensively, the 06-07 squad relied on outscoring teams and routinely netted 5 or more goals per game with several games of 7 and 8 goals against some of the best teams in the United States.
In 06-07 all 9 forwards on our team finished in the top 43 players in the league in scoring with 6 forwards ranking in the league's top 20. The team featured three equally balanced forwards lines and all 9 forwards on the team scored between 20 goals and 31 goals.
However, through 9 games this season our forwards have combined to score a paltry 23 goals for a goals per game average as a unit of approximately 2.5 per game. While our defensemen and goaltenders have been outstanding in their performance and have met or exceeded expectations thus far, our forwards must pick it up - now.
Our entire unit of talented forwards needs to start forechecking harder and driving to the net more agressively to cause turnovers, create scoring chances, and hunt for rebounds and tip ins. Too much perimeter play and not enough aggressive play on the forecheck and in front of the opponents net has been our team's #1 deficiency so far this season.
The coaches are issuing a challenge to the entire forward unit to start doing what is needed to increase goal production to an output level that corresponds with their significant talent level.
Monday, September 10, 2007
REVISED: Border City Cup Tournament Schedule
The second tournament of the 2007-08 season is a local one albeit played on the Windsor-side of the US-Canadian Border.
The Border City Cup features 3 of the final 8 teams from the recent Joe Maire Tournament including our team along with York Simcoe and Rochester Alliance. Detroit Little Caesars will also be a participant.
All games will be played at South Windsor Arena where we played Sun County in an Exhibition Game back in August:
Oct 5 at 9:45 PM vs. Sun County Panthers
Oct 5 at 7:00 PM vs. North York Rangers
Oct 6 at 3:00 PM vs. Rochester Alliance
Oct 6 at 8:45 PM vs. Windsor Spitfires
Oct 7 at 11:00 AM Semifinals
Oct 7 at 4:00 PM Finals
The Border City Cup features 3 of the final 8 teams from the recent Joe Maire Tournament including our team along with York Simcoe and Rochester Alliance. Detroit Little Caesars will also be a participant.
All games will be played at South Windsor Arena where we played Sun County in an Exhibition Game back in August:
Oct 5 at 9:45 PM vs. Sun County Panthers
Oct 5 at 7:00 PM vs. North York Rangers
Oct 6 at 3:00 PM vs. Rochester Alliance
Oct 6 at 8:45 PM vs. Windsor Spitfires
Oct 7 at 11:00 AM Semifinals
Oct 7 at 4:00 PM Finals
Notes On Joe Maire Tournament
This past weekend in Toronto at the Joe Maire Tournament was a success.
Our most important objective at this major September Tournament was simple - to put our (previously rather unknown) team on the scouting radar in terms of top Midget Minor teams in North America so that junior scouts and NCAA recruiters will be interested in evaluating our players throughout this season.
Mission Accomplished!
Overall I would give our team a grade of "B" for game performance - lots of potential, lots of room for improvement.
Our most important objective at this major September Tournament was simple - to put our (previously rather unknown) team on the scouting radar in terms of top Midget Minor teams in North America so that junior scouts and NCAA recruiters will be interested in evaluating our players throughout this season.
Mission Accomplished!
Overall I would give our team a grade of "B" for game performance - lots of potential, lots of room for improvement.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Road Rules: Check Your E-mail For Team Rules For Roadtrips
Team Members please check your e-mail today for some important e-mails including Team Rules for Roadtrips.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Tuesday Practice Report Time 7:45 PM
All players please report for practice at 7:45 PM at Great Lakes Arena on Tuesday. We have a number of equipment and administrative things to take care of prior to dryland training that will require extra time.
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