BILLETS, PARENTS, AND THE DEADLINE

Well the dreaded month of November is almost over. The stretch of 14 games in 29 days with 10 of those games being on the road has taken its toll on a lot of people. The injury bug has finally started to go away. And the schedule has started to slow down a bit which is nice.

As you may or may not know, the first MJHL roster cut down deadline is coming up on December 1st. Each Junior “A” team in Canada needs to get their cards down to 25. But that doesn’t mean that teams will have 25 players. This deadline is the first of two that Junior “A” leagues have during a season. The big one is on January 10th. The December 1st deadline is used to set yourself up in a positive position to make the moves that will give your team the edge before the rosters are set following the January deadline. Most teams will only keep around 21 or 22 playing on the roster after December 1st which gives you three or four extra cards in which to add those impact players in January.

The Flyers are not the only team in the world that is looking to upgrade what they have which means there are many teams looking to find the same kind of player. So making the right move or even taking a pass on a certain player can have huge implications as to how your season will enfold.

However, as much as I would like to see some moves that bring excitement and legitimately upgrade the talent on the ice, I think the most important upgrade that can be made is with the players that are already here. No one can say that the Flyers of 10/11 don’t have talent. But what you can say is that the consistent effort that is required to win on a nightly basis isn’t there. We have seen a lot of games this year where the effort matches the talent and that is really exciting to see and makes you think that this team can really do something special. If the 23 players currently on the roster can all play to their potential and the men in the Flyers office can find the right pieces that fit the puzzle, I think the sky is the limit this season.

(2010/11 Winkler Flyers Billets Families and Parents)

Another thing that happened this past weekend was the annual Flyers billet and parent weekend. It was a time to give thanks and recognize a group of volunteers that has such a huge impact on any Junior hockey franchise. Every season numerous families open up their homes and lives to these players and take them in and treat them as one of their own. I have heard many times how important it is to have a good home like atmosphere for these guys to live in for seven or eight months of the year.

This past weekend a good number of the players parents and other family members were in town to watch a couple games. If you go to as many games as I do you get to see a core group of parents that make the trip to nearly every game. But, for some of them it was the first chance they have had to see their boy in action. It was great to see the excitement in the eyes and just to see how proud they are of their kid who spends most of the year hundreds of miles away from home. I can only imagine what these parents have to go through when they put their trust in someone else to put the best interests of their child first. It was really nice for them to be able to come and watch a couple games and for the team to recognize them for the things they do.

I hope that through this blog, the stories that I write for the Flyers website, and through the Flyer Folder and play-by-play broadcasts on the radio and internet it lets you be a little closer to the team even though geography doesn’t allow you to be sitting in the stands cheering them on. The things that we all do to promote the team are for you as parents and family and for the fans. It was great to be able to meet you all this weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again very soon.

If you have any questions or comments you can leave a comment on this blog post or you can email me at matt@winklerflyers.com

Until next time....