VB冰球:值得骄傲的回归

 

曲棍球赛季充满了起起落落. 团队会经历一段时间的挣扎, 在适当的时候迈开大步，就能找到成功, and honestly at times you can hit periods where you know you need to give your athletes a break from each other because it seems the tension among them is getting high.

 

In many ways our game Sunday in the CPSHA National Championship game had all of these elements. We had some struggles, we had tension, but because of the way we go about things as a team we hit stride at the right moment and never ever allowed ourselves to give up. As a coach, I pride myself on being not just an optimist but a realistic optimist. I have coached enough hockey games to be able to draw on other experiences to make sure that nothing feels impossible, 即使在全国决赛中以5比2落后. 如果你足够渴望某样东西，并且为此付出了足够的努力, 放弃不是一个简单的选择.

 

斯坦斯特德是一所有着丰富传统的学校, 不仅在学术上，在体育和, within that domain, hockey. The CPSHA is made up of like-minded institutions across Canada who value the experience of the boarding student and the student-athlete. For our final weekend, Shawnigan Lake School, Upper Canada College, Ridley College, Stanstead College, 主教学院学校和罗赛-内瑟伍德学校都在圣. Catherines, Ontario at Ridley. 如果你查一下这些学校的历史, 你很快就会发现，我们所有人在这方面已经做了很长时间了. Our banquet dinner on Thursday night spoke to the uniqueness of an event where all schools involved are over 100 years old. That is a lot of tradition, a lot of history, 很多不同的寄宿学校, and even some bow ties.

 

在冰上，我们起步不稳. Despite playing a fairly decent game against RNS and holding a large shot-on-net advantage, 比赛的结果对我们不利. 在一场短暂的比赛中，我们立即陷入了困境. 接下来发生的事情是一个相当令人印象深刻的壮举, as we won our next three games (all which were must-win games) by scores of 3-0 vs Ridley College, 1-0上加拿大学院和5-1肖尼根湖学校. 简单的计算表明我们在三场比赛中丢了一个球. 我们打出了自己的风格，而且打得很好. In particular, I look at our game against Shawnigan and would define our team game as close to perfect. We did the little things well, played for the person beside us and beat another very good team. 在和团队一起去了尼亚加拉瀑布之后, it was confirmed that we would face off against Upper Canada College for the national championship.

 

As a coach, you go into these big games trying to find the line between it being another game and acknowledging that it does carry just a little more weight. 两周前的TNPHL决赛, we carried too much of that weight on us in the first period and never recovered. Lesson learned, right?

 

不，前几次轮班是来来回回的, 但随着第一节开始的10分钟慢慢过去, UCC的速度更快，打得更好. 我也有类似的感觉，但我们有一些需要解决的问题. 我们以前也遇到过这种情况，我们知道什么行不通. I felt I knew what other buttons needed to be focused on and we just needed to get out of the first period with our heads up, and we did this. We fell into a 2-0 hole, but by the end up the first we found the back of the net to make things 2-1.

 

我可以对这场比赛逐一进行分析，但我将这样总结. We were down 2-0, 5-2, and 6-4, but the final score was Stanstead 8, Upper Canada College 6. 动量从一边转移到另一边. 我们完全有理由抱着这样一种心态:今天不是我们的好日子, 但我们的目光从未离开过奖品. 我们的替补队员很沮丧，但那是出于对成功的渴望. People didn’t like where we were at, and we just needed to find a spark, and we did.

 

第三节晚了，大约还剩8分钟, 我们取得了领先，我们从不回头, 在一场比赛的点球大战中，我感觉我们的防守被锁定了. 我们在整场比赛中不时挣扎，但我们从未放弃, 事情一开始并没有如我们所愿, 但我们不允许消极情绪占据上风. 它试图做到这一点，但领导者是领导者，人们是为彼此而战.

 

体育菠菜大平台是全国冠军. I love hearing this phrase. 我不认为实现这一目标所付出的努力是理所当然的, and I know that it is a feeling that only one of the teams on the weekend get to feel. It is an honour, but win or lose, this group of Spartans was always going to be one to be proud of. 2024 has been a magical run. 我们找到了一致性和凝聚力, 在我看来，我们打球是为了享受比赛的乐趣. From the beginning of the year when we honored former coach Peter Boyd to today, 在CPSHA的最后一场比赛开始47小时后，我们经历了一些时刻, but as Coach Boyd said, 正如我在最后一场比赛之前所说的, 能有机会成为斯坦斯特德家族的一员是很特别的. 输赢都不会改变这一点, 但不可否认的是，冠军永远在一起.

 

Enjoy the walk gentlemen, wear your rings with pride, and always remember that what you accomplished you did so as a team of young men who never quit.

 

- A proud Coach T