Some quick notes and thoughts on the morning after the last regular season games for the year. Plenty of action this week, including meaningful games that decided conference championships and some "off the ice" items that generated plenty of discussion and commentary.
First off, congratulations to Hudsonville's senior forward Alex Host who became the leading scorer in the school's history. He notched his 108th point on an assist to John Kersaan in H'ville's last regular season game last night. Here's the thing: He amassed those points in just two seasons of high school hockey where the previous leader played four years.
Speaking of seniors, congratulations to the awesome senior leaders at Lowell-Caledonia who decided to play high school hockey this year instead of travel, where many of them had played for the past few years. They were rewarded with great crowds at their home games, a conference championship and many memories.
Hats off, as well, to the guys at Forest Hills Central and coach Scott Titus. After a rocky start, they regrouped and have played amazing hockey in the past two months to win the Tier 2 title and move back up to Tier 1. The way they are playing right now, the Rangers may very well be the second best team in the Grand Rapids area.
And you have to give it up to Mona Shores for their ability to dig themselves out of a hole. For the second time this season, they found themselves facing a 3-goal deficit to Kentwood in the second period, only to turn up the heat and come back for the win. Credit seniors JC Boyd and Adam Meloche for showing grace under pressure, along with goaltender Scottie "the Wall" Tiefenthal for continuing to battle when the chips were down.
Down south of where I reside, the Portage Central Mustangs deserve kudos for their undefeated season in the SWMHSHL and their victory in the championship game of the league tournament. Congrats to Coach Jim Murray, who has been helpful to the Blog and has struck me as a class act.
While it wasn't a title game, Ottawa-Union's 6-5 OT win the other day against the Kalamazoo Eagles gave the OU team its sixth win of the year, which is a high watermark for the school over the past half-decade. Congratulations to the team and rookie coach Andrew Soper, who is intent on rebuilding the program into a competitor.
Finally, I would be remiss not to mention two awesome postings on MLIVE this week. The first post was by Dave Ballmer, whose son Joey plays goalie for the Kalamazoo Eagles. He calls out the posters who rip 15 year old kids behind the veil of a screen name and also ranks the parents in the SWMHSHL. The second post is by local off-ice official and friend of the Blog, Tom Jones, who takes the Mona Shores coaching staff to task for dropping too many F-bombs on the kids and, more to the point, urges all teams to clean up their language. Both of these posts generated lots of discussion and had two things in common: Ballmer and Jones signed their names to them and both put kids first. What a novel concept.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The Morning After
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
And many thanks to you, host blogger, for everything you've done for West Michigan Hockey. I've learned more about other teams, coaches and players this year than any of my previous years involved with varsity hockey. With all of the "information" posted on MLive it is a great change to read only positive posts and this will hopefully remind everyone involved that it is about the players and that each one of them play with their hearts as well as their bodies. Every one of them give a tremendous amount of time and efforts to their teams and deserve our respect, win or lose.
As a Mona Shores player, our coaches have never offended anyone, nor do the "cuss out kids." Every once in a while, coaches and players get caught up in the game and let it slip, but our coaching staff has really cut down and improved over the years. Coach Clark keeps everyone in line on the bench. In all honesty, that post on Mlive was a load of crap.
also... if someone was in the score box at east kentwood, how in the world can they hear what is said on the bench. i have played at ek a few times in my life and i know that the scorebox is enclosed by 3 plexiglass windows and i was wondering how int he world someone could hear everything said on the bench? also i was on the bench so i can say with 100% honesty that the post made was 110% untrue. i was surprised to see someone say such a thing. our coaches have said all season to watch the swearing, and nor was anyone yelled at on the bench. i felt that this needs to be cleared up and these accusations are not true.
I will address this simply so it can be understood by all. The rear of the scorers area is open and the acoustics allow us to hear comments from both benches. The top is also open and sound reflects off the "nest". What we both heard is what I commented on. It is truthful and unfortunate. Maybe where you were on the bench you couldn't hear it. All I know is that it did occur. Maybe you were on the ice at the time. Who knows?
The point is: get on with it and work to make things better.
We would love to get on with something that never happened.... but everyone keeps bringing it up. I don't know what you heard in the scorekeepers box, but I can garuantee it was not the Mona Shores Coaching Staff.
I have worked the score box at Kentwood also,you can hardly hear the refs with half the crowd in that place let alone players and coaches!I have watched Kw-Ms twice this year, what GREAT games. Do most of the coaches work at the schools?I think it would be interesting to know what some of the coaches do for a Real job!Good luck to all the schools in the playoffs!
I do not know what has sparked this dialoge regarding comments from the bench. My son doesn't play for either EK or MS, he is a goalie, and tells me about the language and other nasty deeds he puts up with from players. It is a sad comment on what we deem now as acceptable behavior.
Let it go! This conversation has already been "done" on MLive.
I agree with poster #1, A HUGE Thanks to you, Brian, for all your hard work on this blog this season.
In addition to reading game reports/scores, the blog has been a great way to catch up with "where are they now?". I've seen lots of familiar names....some that go way back to my kids's mini-mite days.
Best of luck to the teams continuing on in the playoffs! And All the Best to the Seniors....Good Luck in whatever the future holds for all of you!
I have read the postson mlive,and this site(you are doing a wonderful job buy the way!the kids diserve this along with all the people that dedicate their time and effort for our future!). back to what I have read. Mr. Jones,a player or player defends his coach and your comment is maybe you are on the wrong end of the bench or on the ice!How close are you to hear the things you are saying the coaches are saying?
Let's make this the last word on the topic. Here's the bottom line: Everyone from players to coaches to Bloggers needs to clean up their language on the ice and in the locker room.
100% thanks to host blogger for all you do = it is great. sorry to see negative now about ms/ek game or either team. Both teams played hard clean hockey-great game to watch. Rivalry will always be intense with these 2 teams. The game never got out of hand. We should commend all players for showing great maturity in the heat of battle. congrats to ms & good luck in your playoffs. Go Falcons !!
Brian - forgive me for posting again on this matter, but an old buddy called me up and reminded me of how we addressed this when we were scorekeeping for the old Bearcats Jr. A team.
It's rather humorous and may be a way to end this "situation".
If you've ever attended at Jr. level game, you know it's a rather rough and tough scenario. It was especially bad whenever the Bearcats would play Compuware. It was the upstart Bearcats vs. the best in the league. The jawing between the penalty boxes was unbelieveable.
At the old Delta Plex, the penalty boxes were across the ice from the benches, so the only ones there were the off-ice crew. Well to make a short story even longer - the banter got to be so bad we couldn't find guys willing to be penalty box officials.
Well over a few adult beverages one night, we came up with this.
We put a lady in the penalty box. Amazingly, the kids were complete gentlemen the minute they entered the penalty box. The rest of the season was without any incident of bad behavior. There was no slaming of doors, throwing sticks or water bottles, and no off color remarks to the refs or other players - they simple sat in the box and waited for the penalty to end.
What a simple way to remedy this situation.
Maybe we should start having female penalty box officials for the games and maybe the players and adults will behave a little better - not less agressive, but at least mannered.
Post a Comment