By Cameron Dawson
This fall, for the second time in our school's history, JPCI had a hockey team, and for the first time, they had a successful season. This year’s team played in the Junior division, consisting of players from only grade nine and ten, as opposed to last year when students from any year could play. There is no doubt that this year’s team took a huge step forward in terms of the team’s competitiveness and potential future. The JPCI Junior team won three games in the regular season, and they made it to Semi-Finals during playoffs, but they lost to the overpowering Northern SS team. Northern was undefeated the entire season, as they outscored opponents by more than five and a half goals on average.
When coach Savinetti was asked to comment on the large improvement from last year to this year, he said that this year’s team had substantial depth and more experienced players compared to last year’s inaugural team, which was the first competitive school ice hockey experience for many of the players. I was fortunate to play on last years’ team, and despite the not winning a single game, it was still a great experience for all, and in my opinion, the on-ice chemistry came together at the end of the year. This year’s team picked up where last year’s team left off. With excellent coaching and some experienced student leaders; the positive team attitude and rapid development of the team, led to success. Coach Savinetti's thoughts were echoed by the players, some who also mentioned that the team seemed more serious - to the extent that they had a real skating coach, who helped bring out their strengths and helped build effective team strategies.
The coach also said one of the major reasons the team did as well as it did was due to the player's hard work, recognizing Benji Orgil, the MVP and assistant captain of last year’s team, who played exceptionally well this year and helped lead the team as the team captain this year. The coach also said one of the major reasons the team did as well as it did was due to the player's hard work, recognizing Benji Orgil, the MVP and assistant captain of last year’s team, who played exceptionally well this year and helped lead the team as the team captain this year.
The coach also said one of the major reasons the team did as well as it did was due to the player's hard work, recognizing Benji Orgil, the MVP and assistant captain of last year’s team, who played exceptionally well this season, and helped lead as the team captain this year .
When Tyler Dawson, a player from grade nine, was asked about leadership in the dressing room, he said, “I was impressed at the leadership both in the dressing room and on the ice. Coming into a new school team that hadn’t won a game in it’s lifetime, I was initially a bit apprehensive. The players bonded well, and we improved considerably throughout the season.”
This year’s team had more skill and more depth than last year’s team, which caught the competition of guard. Of course, in expected JPCI spirit, the team was modest in their accomplishments and well-liked by all the other school teams.
With the substantial improvement in the JPCI hockey team this year, a lot of people are looking towards next year and wondering what the future holds. Coach Savinetti said that it will be challenging to continue and improve at the rate they did this year, and it will be an up-hill battle as the team will lose three key players who will be in grade 11. Thus, I encourage everyone to spread the word about how exciting it is to play on the JPCI hockey team, and hopefully all eligible players will rise up to the challenge and try out next year.
