Coach's Corner

Jun 10, 2010, 2:10 pm

May 30th at Woodland Rink

 

The Chico Firebird 14u travel team is on a roll!  First we win the silver championship at the NARCh qualifier and then this past Memorial Day weekend, the 14s win the Silver Championship for Sierra Inline Hockey League!  We are hopeful we can continue our winning ways in July at the big dance, the NARCh finals!

In the SIHL tournament, the 14s first game was against the Ripon Valley Thunder.  We won the game 4-0 with Jason Novak scoring a couple of goals in power plays with assists from Garrett Anderson.  Our special teams were just that this tournament, “special”, featuring good patience, good choices, unselfishness and good passing; what more could a coach ask for!

Our second game was against the Sonora Hawks and we were leading at half 3-0.  In the second half, we encountered another of those “Twilight Zone” games where it seems as if you are watching the game through the end of a soda bottle… wow.  We ended up losing 4-6.  However, being an experienced team, we put this stinker behind us in the locker room at the end of the game.

Losing against Sonora bought us another look at Ripon.  We ended up beating Ripon again 7-0.  We dominated the puck the whole game and kept it in the offensive zone 75 % of the time.  If we lost the puck we fore-checked or back-checked hard to win it back.  One player who had an exemplary tournament in this department was Bryan Bruckman.  It says a lot about a player’s heart when he works so hard for the team at doing something that he really doesn’t want to do.  Coach Mike has stressed from day one that it’s the things you do when you don’t have the puck that makes the difference and earns you extra rink time.  Well done Bryan!  You also need players who can find the back of the net and this game featured goals from Jason (2), Carson (2), Garrett (2) and Gabe.  It’s also nice to have balanced scoring!

Winning our third game landed us in the Finals against Sonora.  We were determined to prove our second game loss to Sonora as a fluke.  This game was extremely tight in the first half knotted 0-0 when the buzzer sounded.  In the second half, we had a little déjà vu with Gabe scoring our first goal on a breakaway which was reminiscent of the finals game against Davis in our last tournament.  Unfortunately, our lead was short-lived with Sonora tying the game not long afterward.  We scored again when Carson found the back of the net from a nice assist from Jason.  We’re up 2-1!  But, alas, Sonora ties the game late in the half.  With less than 2 minutes left in the game, we were in the power play and playing it well.  Garrett had the puck.  Now Garrett had assisted Jason a number of times in this tournament with a pass right across the front of the net, and they were beautiful plays, this time Garrett held onto the puck and the tension was mounting, was he going to pass?  Instead, Garrett made a move to look like a pass and at the last second changes the path of the puck for an upper shelf goal over the goalie’s left shoulder…game winner!!

We are very proud of this team.  In this tournament they displayed excellent unselfishness.  We tell the boys that when you put your teammates before yourself you become a winner and that has been borne out these last two tournaments.  We have a great locker-room where the guys genuinely like each other.  They are a pleasure to work with.  If we can stay out of the” twilight zone”, we have a good chance at competing at a high level!

May 11, 2010, 10:22 pm

May 8-9th at Silver Creek Sportsplex 

The Chico Firebird 14u team competed in a regional NARCh qualifier this past weekend and the boys all provided a wonderful Mother’s Day gift to our program: peewee champions in the silver division!  There were 10 teams in the peewee (14 & under) division and we started off the tournament facing the home team on their home rink: the Revision Mustangs.  All the scoring in this game came from the combination of Dylan Golet scoring on assists by Jason Novak.  We came out strong and adjusted to the sport court faster than we have for a long time.  Charlie Robinson had a solid game in net and would not allow a sniff of a goal to the Mustangs.  We ended up winning 2-0.

 Our second game pitted us against the Pacific Storm, a platinum team that won the previous Qualifier in San Jose two months ago.  The Storm is actually an ice team that straps on their inline skates for special tournaments.  The game started off with the Storm scoring 2 quick goals and it seemed we were on our way to being mercied except, our guys decided they didn’t want it to be that easy, they countered with a goal to make it 2-1.  I think Dylan Golet scored on a breakaway.   We battled the Storm well into the second half with the score being 5-3 with about 3 minutes left.  In the final 3 minutes the Storm scored another goal and that seemed to break our spirit, they scored 3 more times before it was over and we ended up losing 9-3.  I can’t remember who scored our other two goals but I think Jason Novak and Carson Malinowski were the two guys who did the damage.  Carson had a very good game, especially in front of the net (In the Cage) where I think he put in a rebound on a power play.  The bottom line is we went toe to toe with an excellent team and we competed well.  They were just better at exploiting mistakes which is why they are platinum.

Game three found us playing the Bend Bullets, another platinum/gold team and another ice team playing inline for NARCh.  This team was slower than the Storm and I thought we had a really good chance at stealing a game from them.  I guess the hockey gods read my mind and didn’t agree because it seemed as if every time we were in place to really do some damage, an invisible hand would cause the puck to jump in the air over our blades and onto the blade of a Bullet.  In one sequence, we had a 2 on 1 break away and the puck jumped over our two player’s blades and ended up on the defender’s blade instead which he took down and scored.  The game was so frustrating for me to watch that I can’t recall who did any of our scoring.  I think Garrett Anderson and maybe Dylan Golet collected scores in this game.  We ended up losing 5-2.  We left the rink and went to eat pizza nearby so we could watch the San Jose Sharks advance in their playoff march.  While we were eating, we got a phone call from the rink.  We were tied for 6^th place and needed to break the tie with either a coin flip or a shoot-out 6:30 a.m. with the other team.  We decided to leave the decision up to Charlie Robinson, our goalie.  Charlie decided he wanted the challenge so shoot-out it was.

Bright and early Sunday morning we got to the rink for the 6:30 a.m. shoot-out against the Revision Mustangs.  The Mustangs shot first and were denied by Charlie.  Our first shooter was Jason Novak and he went upper shelf for a goal.  The second Mustang was defeated by a poke check from Charlie.  Gabe Wackerman shot next, 5-hole, toe-save. The third Mustang scored with Charlie just missing with his blocker.  Tied 1-1.  Our third shooter was Bryan Bruckman, into the pads.  The fourth Mustang was gloved by Charlie.  One shooter left, Garrett Anderson.  Garrett skated toward the goalie and unleashed another upper shelf for the win!  With this we were able to take moms out for Mother’s Day breakfast!!

After breakfast we played Valley Thunder White in the semi-final game.  We must have had our Wheaties because we were up 7-0 just after half time.  We had goals from Gabe, Jason, Garrett, Dylan and maybe Carson.  Charlie, fresh off his awesome performance in the shoot-out, had another shutout.  We ended up working on our passing the rest of the game and advanced to the silver championship game against Nor-Cal Extreme.

We haven’t beaten Nor-Cal yet this season so we had plenty to play for and the game was tight.  The first score of the game came off a rebound from a shot by Ryan Reidlinger.  I think it was Garrett Anderson that put the rebound in.  We were up 1-0 for most of the first half.  Nor-Cal finally answered with a goal of their own and we were tied 1-1.  This game was really a battle with excellent defense and goalie play.  There were a lot of bodies flying around and both teams were in power plays and penalty kills for most of the second half.  Then, with about a minute left and the Firebirds in a penalty kill, Bryan Bruckman, who had just moved to “Chaser”, tipped a pass from one of the Extreme players.  Gabe Wackerman flew out from the defense to pick up the puck and race down the rink scoring on a wicked wrister with 43 seconds left!  It was a short-handed goal so we were still in the penalty and we managed to hold on for the victory!!

Mike and I are very proud of these boys.  They played two of the best teams in the tournament and held their own.  They won a shoot-out very early in the morning and they finally beat Nor-Cal Extreme just before SIHL championships.  We were in every game we played and we played with integrity.  I think we all grew a little this tournament and hope we continue our growth through the next two tournaments.  Go Firebirds!!

Jim Wackerman

Additional information at NARCh website...

http://www.narch.com/NARCh_Blogs/roller_hockey_0510108123.html

Jan 20, 2010, 7:56 am

NARCh Winternationals

The Chico Firebirds 14U team participated in Winternationals in San Jose this last weekend.  Our first game was at 7:40am against the Eschelon Puckhogs.  Our team came out with a lot of passion and played one of the best first games we’ve ever played in a tournament.  Everyone on our team contributed to our win of 5-0.  Our defense only allowed 2 shots on goal, while our scoring was spread over 5 players.  Garrett Anderson, Bryan Bruckman, Dylan Golet, Carson Malinowski and Benji Whitmore all scored goals while Gabe Wackerman and Dylan Golet both contributed assists.  Our special teams play was excellent scoring on 3 out of 6 power plays and not allowing any goals on our penalty kill.  What a start!

Our second game was against the Labeda XDH, the eventual Gold-level champion from Corona, California.  Labeda is a platinum/gold level team and they showed it by handing us a mercy 0-8.  A team like Labeda provides us with a glimpse at a team we aspire to be like; they were so smooth!  This team was big and fast.  We were able to hold them off until the second half before the 8^th goal was scored.  Our team never gave up and battled hard.  Both coaches were extremely proud of our effort.

Our third game found us facing 949 Anarchy from Irvine, the other participant in the Gold-level championship game.  What luck! We face the 2 finalists of the Gold championship out of our 3 qualifying games among 12 teams!!  We battled this team well losing 3-6.  We held the puck for the majority of the game; however, if we misplayed the puck once, they would exploit it.  We got goals from Bryan Bruckman, Adam Steele and Benji Whitmore with Dylan also providing an assist.  Again, our special teams played well.  We got one goal from 2 power plays and did not allow a goal on our penalty kill which was actually a 4 on 2 penalty kill manned by Dylan and Gabe…amazing!

By going 1-2, we were seated 5^th in the Silver division.  Our quarter final game was against Team Hawaii; a team that mercied us 1-9 in the semi-finals in NARCh 2 years ago!  Well, that was then and this is now!  We came out in this game on fire!  Hawaii is a fast team and our goalie, Charlie Robinson held the line!!  The only goal he allowed was an incredible backhand shot.  Hawaii had a good goalie, too.  He made it hard for us and blocked many shots.  We got goals from Dylan Golet and Adam Steele with Gabe Wackerman giving another assist.  Although the score was close, 2-1, we controlled the game by playing good defense and passing well.  If not for their goalie, we could have easily scored 5 more goals.  I can’t express how proud we were of the boys in this game.  We all entered the semifinals with high hopes!

The semifinals game pitted us against the Silicon Valley Quakes, a team that should have been in the Gold division with Labeda, Anarchy and the Riot.  The Quakes had the same misfortune as us; playing 2 of the top 3 teams in the qualifier.  We had a good game against the Quakes, losing 1-2 with Garrett Anderson scoring our lone goal!  Again, we held the puck for the majority of the game.  And again, we faced an excellent goalie and an excellent defense.  We had a lot of energy but, we needed to put the puck in the net more. 

This tournament gave us great hope for the future.  Our passing game is greatly improved from the past.  Our special teams performed well getting 4 goals on power plays and not allowing a goal on penalty kills.  We also won the majority of face-offs.  We only need to clean up our puck handling a little more and improve our accuracy on our shots and we will be pulling some victories from teams like the Quakes and Anarchy.  Our boys never quit in a game and we are very proud of them!  Go Chico!!

Jim Wackerman

PS  Gabe Wackerman also played on a 12u team from Antioch.  They won every game including the Squirt Gold Championship.  Gabe was second leading scorer with 13 points (9 goals and 4 assists) in 5 games.  All from the defenseman position.  Way to go Gabe!

CHECK OUT PHOTOS UNDER "PHOTO GALLERY" THEN UNDER TRAVEL "WINTERNATIONALS 2010"

Dec 13, 2009, 10:41 pm

On November 28^th our Firebirds 14U team played in the Turkey Trot tournament in San Jose.  It was rewarding to see our boy’s hard work in practice translate into a good performance in tournament play.  I felt we were the third best team out of the 7 in our division.  Our misfortune was that we played the top 2 teams in our three games!

In the first game we played the Riot, a nationally ranked platinum team.  We held them scoreless for a period and a half before finally succumbing 5-0 in the third.  We played them the closest of any team in the tournament.  This is especially good news because it normally takes a game for the Chico teams to adjust to the sport-court floors in the rinks we play in.  Additionally, the game was closer than the 5-0 score would indicate.  In the third period, we decided our focus was to score a goal against this team that played such great defense.  As a result, we gave up a couple of cheap goals while trying to press for a goal ourselves.

In the second game we played the Mustangs from San Jose.  In this game we finally found the back of the net.  We jumped to a 5-1 lead by the end of the second period with the scoring coming from 5 different players.  I don’t have access to the stats of the game but I believe we got goals from Dylan, Adam, Gabe, Carson and Garrett…my apologies if I missed or added someone.  We ended giving up a couple of cheap goals in the third period as we lost our collective focus.  The outcome was never in doubt as we dominated the puck and kept it in the offensive zone through most of the game.  We had excellent energy and played as a team.

Our third game was against the Quakes, the second best team in our division.  This is a team I think we have a good chance of beating in the future.  The Quakes have an excellent goalie that seemed to have an answer for every shot we fired at him.  We had about the same number of shots on goal as the Quakes but ended up losing 6-1.  Our lone goal came on an outstanding deke by Jason in the third period.  The Quakes were a gold level team, a level that we aspire to play in NARCh. 

Overall, I think our play in this tournament was very good.  We learned a few things about ourselves as a team and areas we need to concentrate on in practice.  The boys played hard and never gave up.  They supported one another and are learning what Coach Mike expects of them in games.  Charlie, our goalie, had a fine tournament, especially considering this was his first travel tournament in which he played every game.  Coach Mike and I are very encouraged at Charlie’s development.  Our next tournament will be Winter Nationals back in San Jose.  We will most likely face the same teams again.  Hopefully, the practices we have in the meanwhile will allow us to close the gap with the Riot and Quakes!

Sincerely,

Jim Wackerman

Assistant Coach Firebirds 14U

 

May 19, 2009, 1:16 pm

Chico 14U Firebirds Team Plays best season ever!

On Sunday May 17^th the Chico Firebirds 14s team earned a second place finish in the silver division of the SIHL championships. We played our best tournament of the year! Our first game was against Redding and we won 5-1. We played at a frenzied pace from the drop of the puck. In the second game, we battled team Redline from San Jose. In the first half we built a 3-0 lead but, Redline came back to tie in the second half 3-3. The Firebirds answered with another goal and thought we had the game won only to give up a goal in the closing minutes to settle for a tie. Our effort in the first two games earned us a #1 seed for the championship! We faced Redline in the Championship, it was another exciting game. We traded goals and it was close the whole way. We missed tying the game with 2 minutes left by 3 inches!!

The thing that is most rewarding for Yak and I is that the whole team contributed in our effort at Davis. We had Toby bringing his maturity and scoring for our team. Adam had his best tournament of the year battling for the puck using his speed, strength and size. Ryan played excellent defense and made good decisions. Jason was an opportunistic sniper who fore and back checked hard. Dylan played with a lot of energy and battled for the puck against bigger guys. Benji played with intelligence and heart. Bryan had good energy and courage. Connor worked hard and played the team game. Garrett did a good job with positioning and almost had a few goals if not for a bouncing puck! Gabe had his best tournament scoring a goal or two and providing excellent defense. Charlie played in the net for our second game and did an outstanding job. And finally, Blaine was a wall in net. He provided leadership and won many battles from real good players. These are not only good players but, good kids as well. Their parents should be proud!

When I look back on the year I find I am very proud of how far this team has come. We didn’t score our first goal until our third tournament. We didn’t get our fist victory until our fourth tournament. We had a young team and for a few players this was their first Travel experience. Yet, we were 2 goals away from winning the cup! I feel a lot of the other teams considered us like a kid-brother. Today, they look at us with respect. They know we come to compete and we compete in an honorable way. I feel that Mike Yakemchuk has done an amazing job teaching the subtle points of hockey to our team. His knowledge and feel for the game inspires the boys to do their best! Go Firebirds!

                                    -Jim Wackerman

Jan 26, 2009, 2:04 pm
The Chico 12U A team went to the National Roller Hockey Championships’ Winternationals in San Jose Jan. 16-18. The experience was great. We went down there with two goals: One, to win one game and Two, to play a platinum level team. And we accomplished both.
Our first game on Friday was against the West Coast Warriors. We lost the game 2-10. We needed to find a way to get rid of the first-game jitters. The team started out strong, and the game was close up to the second period. Then the Warriors pulled ahead at the end. We found out later that the Warriors are a platinum level team and that we were the only team to score on them other than the San Jose Sharkbites in the championship game.
Our next game was against the Western Capitols White Team. We won the game 4-0. This was a big confidence booster. The team played great and was looking like the strong team that we are used to. Passing and positioning were really good and we kept the Capitols off balance for most of the game. The morale of the team was on high. And they were looking forward to the next game.
The next game we played Team Redline. We won the game 4-1. The team was definitely on a roll. Again, passing and positioning was what was winning for us. By winning this game, we were put into the Gold bracket. We qualified GOLD at the Winternationals!  This is a great accomplishment and the team was really excited.
After a good night’s rest (yea, right), we had our first playoff game against the Western Capitols Red team. This is a single elimination playoff, and we lost the game 2-10. We started out strong and at the end of the first period the score was 2-4. We definitely had a shot at this one. And then the penalties came. Our team was playing physical, and it showed. Our penalty kill team did great!!
This is where I get to talk about the goalies. Both goalies, Dylan Thornton and Austin Garnett both exceeded all expectations. I can’t say enough about either one of them. We played some really good teams, and they definitely stepped up to the challenge. I won’t forget Dylan stopping two of the three four-on-twos (we won’t go there!) that we had in the last game. And Austin’s performance was exceptional!! It was great to hear other parents say how good our goalies were.
This is a very tight team. Most of them have been playing together for four years or more. And the newer players are fitting right in. The different personalities on the team keep me laughing, and I feel privileged to coach such a great group of kids.
Thank you to the parents for all of the positive reinforcement. Assistant coach Mike Cummings was out with an injury. The team missed him. Get well, Mike. Thanks Ron for stepping in and helping out.

Coach Ken Hubbell

 What an experience Jan. 16-18 was in San Jose for all the players and parents of the 18-and-under Chico Dawgs team. For half of the players, this was their first NARCh Winternational tournament and first NARCH tournament. I’m sure it was an experience they’ll never forget.

Going into the tournament there was some skeptism on how the players would perform against teams they’d never seen, but the skeptics were quickly quieted.

 The first game started out well for the team coming out to a 1-0 lead against the Silicon Valley Quakes Teal very early in the first period. The Quakes quickly struck back with two goals scored on perfect top-shelf shots.  The Dawgs tied the game at 2 all. After a short breakdown the score was 4-2 with the Quakes in the lead. The last few minutes of the game were owned by the Dawgs. Everyone was pushing to get the two goals needed to tie. The Dawgs ended up putting in two goals that were both waved off because of players in the goal crease. The Chico Dawgs dropped the first game to the Silicon Valley Quakes Teal by a score of 4-2.

 The players were disappointed by their loss in such a close game and came to the second game ready to play. The Dawgs scored the first goal of the game 15 seconds into the first period against the Mission Rampage and never looked back. By the end of the first period the Dawgs were up to a 7-0 lead thanks to some great goaltending by Clayton Baumgartner. Less than two minutes into the second period the game was ended in a mercy (an 8-point goal difference) by Steven Micelli after wrapping the puck around the net and past the Rampage’s goaltender. This was Baumgardner’s first shutout in tournament play.

 On Sunday, the Dawgs started a little slow but quickly responded with multiple goals against Team Redline White. Midway through the second period it was easy to tell Team Redline was getting frustrated with our quick aggressive play, and began taking penalties. The Dawgs responded by protecting their teammates and were in penalty trouble as well. The Dawgs were able to finish off the must-win game with an 8-3 score.

 The playoffs started with a 7:55am game. The players were obviously tired and sleepy from having a late game the night before but were still able to scare the No. One-seeded Silver Labeda-XDH of Southern California. After the Dawgs scored the first goal of the game, Labeda quickly responded with 5 unanswered goals. A quick time-out, later the Chico Dawgs were able to calm down and responded with 4 goals of their own, and only allowing one goal. Trailing with roughly a minute left, the choice to pull Baumgartner to get an extra player on the rink was taken. Labeda was able to score with Baumgartner on the bench,  leading by a 7-5 lead. Cole Yakemchuk, with help from Taylor Nelson and Sheldon Auer, was able to net a sixth goal for the Dawg team with 30 seconds remaining. Off the final face-off Labeda won and sent the puck down the rink just wide of the open net. Tyler Hill went back to receive the puck and quickly moved the puck forward into Labeda’s zone and fired the final shot of the game off the post with only seconds left on the clock. Labeda XDH was lucky to come away with a 7-6 win.

After the game, several Labeda players said “that they did not expect to win the game with how hard they (Dawgs) were pressing the net.”

After the game the Dawgs and parents were in high spirits, as well they should be. The team worked harder than I’ve ever seen them work before They made their coach proud.

Throughout the four games, every every player scored or had an assist, except for Goalie Clayton and Nick Ausland, who missed the tourney with a broken hand. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Our players: Captain Sheldon Auer, Jake and Wade Chaffin, Tyler Hill, Mark McFarland, Steven Miceli, Taylor Nelson, goaltender Clayton Baumgartner, backup goaltender Carson Malinowski, and guest Cole Yakemchuk.

Coach Nate Schoonover

Aug 19, 2008, 3:07 pm

CHICO 12U SHOW GREAT SPEED & SPORTSMANSIP

Well, we just got back from San Jose; what a time!  The experience this afforded our kids was magical.  We ended up taking 4^th place.  Thursday we lost to Delta River Rats 8-3, an unexpected outcome.  We have won all but one game against them this year.  Our kids were extremely nervous; I thought a couple were going to blow chunks on me on the bench!  Gabe scored all 3 of our goals, I think his previous experience at NARCh really helped him out.  We really rebounded our next game on Friday, beating the Revision Colts 3-1.  I think Dylan Golet scored 2 goals and Garrett Anderson Scored one with Gabe assisting on 2 of those goals.  Carson got back in form with his goalie-play.  On Saturday we had our 2 toughest games of the preliminaries facing both the teams from St. Louis(Both undefeated).  We tied the Cobras in the first game 2-2, playing the best hockey our kids have ever played as a team.  We were playing with high energy and flying all over the place!  The game started out with the Cobras taking a 1-0 lead, we ended up answering with 2 goals in the 2^nd half and held the lead until about 3 minutes left in the game when they tied on a fluke play.  The Cobras were very upset and displayed poor sportsmanship at the end of the game, our boys displayed perfect respect and our program should be proud of how they handled the situation. Dylan Golet scored both of our goals in this one.  The second game we played was against Tour Blast.  Again, our boys played with great energy.  I think the blast ended up taking a 2-0 lead in the first half.  We came back in the second half to take a 3-2 lead.  The Blast tied it up and then we went ahead 4-3 with about 1 minute remaining.  But, alas, we couldn’t hold the lead and they tied us with a last minute goal.  I think Garrett scored 2, Dylan 1 and Gabe 1.  What a day! We almost beat the top two seeds in the bracket and outplayed them in the process!!  The teams from St. Louis are very polished. They spread the floor and their spacing is perfect.  Their passing is very impressive.  Both teams come from elite programs and the kids also play ice.  We ended up a 4^th seed in the medal round.

                Today we drew the 1^st seed, Tour Blast.  The game started very tight with both teams playing very well.  Then, the Blast scored 3 straight goals and we looked to be in trouble! Gabe answered with a goal to close to within 1.  I think Garrett scored the next goal to tie but, Tour Blast matched his goal within 30 seconds!  We battled some more and Garrett scored again!  We had a tie with about 3 minutes left and everything was looking like we would go to overtime!!  Unfortunately, Tour Blast scored with about a minute left and our dreams for silver or gold were dashed.  I think the discipline with which the Tour Blast played was the  difference.

                The bronze medal game was against Kauai, Hawaii.  I think the loss in our first game really affected our team.  That and the fact that the Hawaiian’s were fastest team we have ever seen and also had two forwards who were about 6 foot tall!!  I don’t know how these guys lost to the two St. Louis teams because I thought they were even better!  They ended up beating us 5-1 with Gabe scoring our lone goal.  To me, the outcome was not in question after the first 5 minutes.  This team was bigger, faster and played as a team better than our team.  They were even nicer because they presented our team with shell beads and a bag full of pencils, key chains and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts!  What an experience!!

                I am very proud of my guys and our time together this week was wonderful for our team bonding.   We also chipped in and bought the video of all our games from NARCh.  I think this will be fun and perhaps helpful in determining how we might improve as a team.  I’ll keep in touch.

Jim Wackerman