Losing our top player who was leading the playoffs in scoring was too much for us and the team played hard but they just had too much talent in the end and move on to the Provincial finals vs Edmonton. The winner of that series plays the winner of British Columbia and that winner moves on to the Canadian Championships in Prince Edward Island.
It was a great group of players, coaches and parents to work with and I really enjoyed this season. We went far beyond anyones expectations by beating the first place team in the second round. We didn't have enough top end players to afford to lose our best player who may be the best one in the league.
A motion has been approved by the Calgary association to have one elite team and two development teams in the AAA league next season. They believe that we are losing a lot of top players to sports schools because the talent pool isn't deep enough to have 3 competitive AAA teams. They want on team that can do well in major tournaments and deep enough to go to the Canadian Championships.
It isn't a final decision yet.
Tom,
Tough luck losing your best player and the series. It sounds like your team overachieved though.
Interesting discussion surrounding the number of AAA midget teams. Since I was involved with GHC several years ago, I have thought that the current structure doesn't work. It is not a self-supporting structure. Too many flagship teams at the top and not enough teams below them to support the structure (3 AAA midget teams; only 2 AAA bantam teams; and a handful of A bantam and A midget teams).
The structure needs to built with a larger development foundation and a leaner elite top.
I don't know how many girls are enrolled in Calgary at the various levels so I don't know if they have the numbers, but perhaps a structure similar to this: 4 bantam B and 4 bantam A; 2 bantam AAA; 4 midget B and 4 midget A; 2 midget AAA teams. This would give a good number of development teams (plus house league for any levels not mentioned here) while providing a self-supporting structure.
I know Edmonton only has 1 AAA midget team (with one AAA bantam team in their city) - not sure of A and B midget teams there. What are your thoughts? You are more in touch with GHC than I.
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Dean I think we were 2 F and 2 D away from being a legitimate contender to go to the Canadian Championship.
Competition Anxiety may be the touhgest thing to coach. You get them to a high level of skill and then some players can't perform even close to their skill level because the situation paralyzes them.
It doesn't matter though. It was an honour and a privilege to work with this group of players. A coaches dream.
Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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