Novice Rep, U9, 2015-2016 (South Huron Minor Hockey)

The Novice Rep's OMHA title hopes came to an abrupt halt last night in Ilderton with the Jets prevailing in a hotly contested game, 3-2. That clinched the series for the Jets, 6 points to 0. They boys showed great determination but just couldn't solve the Ilderton defence and goaltender. Hats off to the Jets, they are a solid team. Our attention now turns to the Shamrock Hockey League Playoffs. Our schedule for Shamrock Playoffs with be released early next week.

   The Reps will wrap up our regular season on January 11 versing the Lucan Irish with a 4th place finish on the line for the Novice Sabres. It was an end to end game, and very exciting to watch as Lucan came out on top by a score of 4-2 in the season finale.    Our OMHA PLaydowns start on January 26th versus our arch nemesis the Ilderton Jets. Although we have yet to beat the Jets in three contests this year, the games have all been close. The Reps will definitely have their work cut out for them, but if we play a solid team game and work hard for an entire game, we just may surprise ...

The Reps are entering an important stretch of the season. With Christmas just around the corner, the last few games of the regular season and the Regional Silver Stick tournament all happening in the next 3 weeks. Exciting times for sure! After a grueling practice on December 7th, the boys had a closed door meeting and decided that it is time to "step it up" and give our best effort. So far the team has had an up and down season, taking one step forward and two back. Veteran Will Coward said, "It's time boys, let's show the hockey world what we are made of." The rest of the team agreed and ...

The Novice Reps have drastically improved since the beginning of the season, but still have a long way to go. We continue to give up goals early in games, which makes it difficult for us when we have to play "catch up" all the time. On the positive side, when the boys are focused, we are competitive with our opposition on most nights. Our strength lies in our forecheck and when we skate hard, we get excellent results. If the boys continue to listen and work hard on and off the ice, the results will follow. Hard to believe we have played two tournaments and are about 1/3 through the season!

Who is Bill Batten anyways? I had the pleasure of playing for Bill when I was a Novice age player (I'll let everyone do their own math to figure out when that was!). Bill always stressed the fundamentals of hockey...skating, shooting and passing. I didn't always understand why we had to practice those things, but I'm sure glad we did. Those skills are the backbone of every hockey player. I use the same principals as a coach that I learned from Bill many years ago. Bill was also the editor for the Exeter Times Advocate for many years as well, spending countless hours covering local sports ...