Answers to comments...

Thank you to those who took the time to ask.  Obviously, I can't answer all but I will expand on those I am at liberty to...

1.  What have I learnt?  Learnt - great word.  I learned that even though the lads signed contracts detailing that they wouldn't date I couldn't control that.  16-18 year olds in that kind of set-up will find the time to chase...

2.  Mystery Brit signing?  Sorry.... no comment.

3.  Who impressed me the most?  Tough question.  They all impress me in different ways as they all have different talents and it's just too hard to pick.  

4.  What happens to the players who go to the EPL this year and how/why do we bring them along?  Well, this answer could drag on so I'll try to be as short as possible.  Minor hockey in Nottingham is good.  We want these "Lions" players to come up for some seasoning on 2-ways (ie. from the past:  Lacho, Nortz, Bully, Neil, Graham, etc.).   The idea is to get them as many games and into as many hockey experiences as possible.  Once they've developed to a level where we think they're not going to progress anymore at the Lions level we have a decision to make:  will we keep them to develop with us or try to get them full-time "pro" experience elsewhere.  We try to be sooo good to them in their development (bringing them to Canada and allowing them to practice, play games) that we hope when they develop into mature British professionals they will be loyal to the club.   The above players (excluding Nortz - Clarkie said he wasn't coming back unless Nortz was there and I quote, "If Nortz's IN - the Panthers WIN!") all left to play in the EPL for that reason, they aren't top-end enough to get regular playing time with a club as good as Nottingham.  They are definitely good enough to play a role at this level, for sure (as we saw at points last season), they just wouldn't have big enough roles to justify them sliding up and down our bench.  They can only develop so much in practice and need a good season of 1st or 2nd line playing experience at the pro (if you can call the epl pro) level.  They're all agreed to two-way arrangements and we intend on bringing them back at some point during the season.  We also plan to use the next crop of young British hopefuls (ie. Callum, Will, Ward, and Soar) as well at various stages of the season.  

So, I know this is a long answer but I hope a satisfying one.  

I will continue to post in a limited capacity though Traning Camp and question the players if they have an interest in doing something like this throughout the season.

Coach

Panthers have landed

Well, we're all back now.  There were some unique hiccups along the way with girl-friends good-byes, flights missed, girl-friends crying, re-bookings, gf's crying some more, over-baggage, crying, delays, crying by text, messaging, long drives home from London, etc. but we're in the country.  We're all pleased it's over.  Speaking with the lads, they enjoyed the experience immensely and praised the organization again for contributing to the trip but we're excited to see their families and start the new season with their new potential for success.

Coming to Canada they had two jobs:

1.  To become bigger, faster, stronger, and  smarter athletes

2.  To impress me

I would have to say that they succeeded on both accounts.  I am very proud of them for their efforts and dedication.  It was more physically demanding then anything they've experienced and they endured.  It was more detailed and mentally demanding as well and they progressed and learned.  Some took to the task faster but each improved a lot.  Their bodies matured, they learned what a "day's work" was.  

Coach

The final countdown!

Hey Will and Callum here!

We have just packed all our bags and we are now ready to depart the amazing teen ranch. This has been a great summer for us two as well as the rest of the lads, we have gained so much out of the seven weeks becoming better players and better people. Some of the skills learned here will be used for the rest of our lives. 

Most importantly, this trip couldn't have taken place if it wasn't for Corey so we would like to thank him for the great 7 weeks and all the time and effort he has put in to making this trip a trip of a lifetime! We would also like to thank Mel Stevens, Tim Stevens, Jim Ensome and our fellow Teen Ranch staff. 

We are all feeling the effects of the past seven weeks both physically and mentally and are looking forward to getting home to see our loved ones. We would both like to take this opportunity to thank our parents for making this trip happen, if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be here!

We are both looking forward to the upcoming season and will keep working to improve and look to make an impact with the Panthers in the near future!

Thanks for keeping up to date with the blog.

Best wishes

Callum and Will.

x

1 sleep to go!!!

Hello all,  Bully and Nortz We have just finished our last weekly, friday night general skate, alongside the excited campers. After just packing our hockey bags, we have both agreed that its strange seeing empty stalls after our kit being there for so long!

As this is our second time at teen ranch we both feel that we have grown mentally, physically and spiritually. We have been able to pass this onto the campers and other brits this year. On a great note a few of the boys have decided to begin to build a relationship with Christ just like us 2 and Laco did last year. 

Without a doubt both of our on and off ice fitness has come on leaps and bounds. We have been heavily involved  and lead, "chalk talks" which is a meeting where we bring all the kids together and talk about strategies and tactics, which has developed out hockey mind further.

We would like to thank Mel Stevens, Tim Stevens, Jim Ensom and Corey Neilson for all their support and teachings over the last 7 weeks. We would also like to thank all the teen ranch staff for being so welcoming and kind throughout all the 7 weeks of our stay. There has been aches and pains but more laughs and positives along the way, this is one trip we will never forget.

Thank you for all reading the blog, see you all next season. Boom!

Love Sam Bullas and Tom Norton

Hello to all the Panther enthusiasts!

Today Orangeville woke to lovely blue skies and a deliciously glowing sun! Today, for those who have followed our daily progress will know, is our last day on Teen Ranch, and our last day in Canada!

I would firstly like to thank Corey, Jim, and Mel for the personal support throughout the trip, and all the staff members here at the Ranch. I strongly feel my ability on the ice has improved a great deal without myself realizing it. I have developed my fundamental skills to a level by which I can now concentrate on the finer detailed skills of the game, and the more specific needs required to play at a higher level of hockey.

The Ranch has also developed my mental outlook on life. Whilst being here, I have dealt with situations which shouldn’t be present in my life at the age I currently am, so I am very grateful for the guidance of Corey, and the friends I have made here, which have all aided myself to become a better person, and a more capable individual.

It has been great to be part of this years Hockey Staff at the Ranch, and it is an experience I will most certainly never forget. I am very excited for the upcoming season in Nottingham, and am looking forward to following the progress of my fellow hockey companions.

Stay classy Orangeville!!

Peace, Josh Ward.

The End

  The end has come and i feel a bit sad to be leaving.  The time i have spent here with the ranch staff and the younger kids has been something i will never forget.  Having said that for the all questions about me proving my critics wrong is not why i am getting in good shape or why i came to the ranch.  The reason i am doing all of this is for my teammates, the organization and most of all my family/myself.  I admit i didn't put in 100% effort last year and apologize to the people who pay good money to watch me play for that, i cant change that now but everyone will see a different Jade in the near future.  

  Jade..

Feedback?

Hello, Corey here.  Just wondering if I could possibly get a few comments from anyone who follows.  I do keep track of the hits to this site and know that there have been more then 5000 - so some people are tracking us and I just wanted to see if there are any questions for the guys before they leave?  For me?  Is there anything we failed to report that you would like covered?

Is this kind of blog something that the team (players) should consider doing during the season?

Thanks.

End is near

Hello there.

Just got off the ice this morning after a great skate and realized that we are done in 3 days.  Although the time to leave back to our homes close i think everyone will miss the ranch a bit. All the boys and i really felt like we got something really positive out of our time here even more so for myself.  

On another note the boys and i are ready for the start of the season and training camp to start up, i myself am really excited to see all the guys in nottingham and to start the season i kno we all think will be a very successful one. To all the ranch staff and helpers and just everyone involved here i am thankful as are the rest of the boys for all you have done and will continue to do for us in the future..

cheers

jade

Wardoooo

Hello friends
We are in our last week, only 4 more sleeps!! Personally I have had a great experience here on the ranch, learning a lot about life and a lot about hockey. This trip will benefit my character on and off the ice, in good preparation for the upcoming season.
Today we were treated to a meal, paid kindly by the ranch. It was a nice oppurtunity to get all the players and staff involved with the hockey staff together.
For the past few days there have been some extreme storms! I have never seen so much wetness in my life!! It was very loud too.
Ross is vacating the ranch early on thursday, the rejection from a young girl several times has had a major emotional impact on him, so sadly due to serious heartache, he will be departing shortly! This is of course, only harmless banter.
And that is about it, we'll by flying in soon! Add the guys here on facebook, and check out the trip pictures, they are reasonably amusing.
Thanks, Josh Ward

haywood and lacho

hello everybody,

just a quick blog after our afternoon workout session. As you know we played on sunday evening against the junior A team which won the 4 on 4 tournament that Corey set up last weekend. After our netminder didnt turn up we had to quickly arrange a last minute replacement, the same guy that played for our losing team in the tournament! The game was pretty even throughout even though we held the lead right up untill the last few minutes in which they managed to bring the score back to 7-7 ( according to them!). We then played a golden goal overtime period which we finished off in under a minute with a shot from the point being tipped in by ross the super scot after a teriffic hit by Haywood in the corner for which he recieved no credit at all! Thanks corey!

Weve just started the last week here in Canada and the guys are starting to look forward to getting home and having their own beds. However, im sure Corey will still have lots of hard work for us to put in this week!

love, lacho and haywood x

BlueJays 5 - Oriels 7

It was a great time had by all.  All the boys smashed into my two vehicles and we headed off to Toronto.  We'd love to thank our sponsor, AMJ Campbell, for the tickets...  I heard the fellas picked up a 65 year old "ball bunny" to sit with as they went their own way whilst Cade and I went ours.  We had a different experience as Cade got a baseball and was really excited.  The boys thought the whole experience good (the Skydome was open so they could see the stars with the CN tower looming overhead) and when asked they likened the game's pace to Cricket.  

The Jays had a 3-0 lead early but blew it for the big Oriel comeback.  I strive to teach them daily and that loss was yet another practical learning experience to which they promised not to let that happen to them this year!

Off now to kill some Junior Super-Stars!

Hey Will, Callum and Soarsy here.

We have all enjoyed a relaxed weekend letting the muscles recover from a hard week.

Tonight we are taking on the team that won the tournament last week, this time however all the British guys will be on the same team so hopefully we will be able to beat them.  We are all looking forward to this as we want to prove to them that we are just as good as them! We now have less than a week left over here and all have mixed emotions about going home. We are all looking forward to getting home and seeing family and friends but will all miss the hockey and people we have met over here. As this is our last week the intensity will be high and we will put all of our effort into it. We are all looking forward to the upcoming season!

Cyaa

PS - It's the team above that we're going to thrash tonight!

Hey guys jade and steve here, i hope everybody is well. This week has been a busy week for the Hockey players, we have been on the ice four times so far, some of the younger guys we have been coaching have also been practising with us. They have shown a huge amount of progression throughout the week which is very good to see.  The workouts are getting alot more intense as we are getting ready for the start of training camp in England.  Talking with all the guys we are very excited to be getting back home for the start of training camp.  

On a good note all the guys are going to be going to a Toronto Blue Jays game tonight for a little break and some fun.  Other then that nothing much new here in the ranch hope to see all of you in a couple weeks time..\

cheers

Steve and Jade

Lacho again

hey everyone, this is my second post of the trip following a pretty quiet week at teen ranch. All of the boys were tired out after the tournament at the weekend and we were all happy to hear that we wouldnt have to get up early for the usual 6am monday morning start! Also after putting all of the hockey campers into one group for the week we were able to take the 9am session for our ice time which we all preferred to the 7am which we have been doing for the past 5 weeks! All the guys have been putting alot of effort in this week both on and off the ice, and i think that we have all enjoyed having Jade around the camp with us.

We have managed to get ourselves tickets to go and watch the Toronto Blue Jays play against the New York Yankees in Toronto on friday evening which should give they guys a nice break and also be a good experience for us all! im guessing that it will be a little different from going to watch a football (soccer) match as we are all used to! Hopefully we wont get lost on the way back like last time.

thats all for now,

Lacho

Matt Haywod

Hey everybody..

This is my first post on the blog since I've been here. ( I couldn't avoid corey any longer) 

 

This weekend all the lads took part in a tournament and we were split up evenly throughout the teams. Everyone did really well with steve, will and callum making it to the finals.. However me and lacho were the only ones not to progress through to the semis out of the English boys (and Coach)... but we are blaming the team not ourselves of course...

The week ahead contains 13-18 year old campers so the standard of hockey will hopefully be better and from the first session this morning it also looks like they are keen to listen and learn from what you have to say.

The lads are starting to find it harder and harder to get up out of be in a morning because we are so exhausted... everybody is going to be stiff in the morning because we had to run "the hill" today which has made everybody unable to walk or sit down.. this made lunch time funny as all other staff members were laughing at us trying to sit to eat our food!

Personally so far I have found this trip very helpful I've learned a lot of new things and plays off Corey and other guys to make me a smarter hockey player..

Away from the hockey side of things the atmosphere between the guys that are here is really good, everyone getting along, encouraging each other and also the banter is awesome! I bet the canadians+Australians thought they were sarcastic!

Anyway bye for now from the Scoffer,   

Matt

Space Connects lose in the Final

Sunday was a jam-packed day for hockey and the Brits shone brightly.  Steve Lee, Tom Soar, Callum Bowley, and Will Weldon progressed into the finals by an excellent defensive display in the semi-final morning game.  Jade and Ross lost this game due to some missed empty nets by some of our youngsters.  Ross has be superb and improves every day.  When I asked Jade quietly  what he thought of him he said Ross has some offensive upside as well which I was encouraged about.  Jade really has been head and shoulders above all players in the tourney and is now a real force (minus the 15 pounds he has dropped from last season).  Between he and Ross, they have dismantled their opposition in the first 3 games but today just couldn't find the back of the net.  4 of their original players failed to show so Lacho, Haywood, and myself joined the losing cause - again, Goaltending was unspectacular.  I was considering dressing up a scare-crow in Goalie equipment for a moment.

The other semi-final pitted Bully, Nortz, Soar, and Wardy against the group of juniors.  I'm so proud of their performance.  They stood up so well for themselves and never gave up an inch - a credit to their country.  I even heard some, "why don't you go back to England" remarks from a frustrated bunch of "so-called" superstars.  Wardy eventually got kicked out of the match for stick-work (it was a minor infraction but the ref wanted to make a point that he didn't want the game to escalate into violence).  Sam drove the net so hard and showed a much improved "presence" and mean-streak which encouraged him to present in his games this season.  By this he created a ton of space for himself to use his skills.  Nortz was composed on the puck as usual and has an abundance of skill for a young defender.  I spoke on Soar yesterday and he was good again.

In the finals, Steve Lee proved to be a dominant presence on the blue-line.  He bumped a guy early to show he was there to play and when that player responded Steve dropped his gloves and was prepared to "defend" himself.  His opponent cowered and Steve had mercy on him.  Other than that Steve proved to be more than capable at making strong out-let passes to his forwards.  In the end, the Juniors were too much on the day as Steve, Callum, Soar, and Will just didn't have enough of a supporting cast to compete.  The other guys on their team were AAA 16 year olds and just not up to the task.

We're looking forward to next Sunday and a potential re-match against the Juniors.  All the Brits will play this time and I sincerely don't like their chances against our boys!  So, we shall see next week but to be this confident now going into the match against some of Canada's best shows just how good of a group has assembled here which bodes well for the Panthers in the upcoming seasons.

PS - My son helped me to name all the teams in the tourney.  Most rhymed with the team sponsor and when I asked him what to call my Neilson Athletics team he replied, "Space Connects".  A great name...

PSS - I know I failed to mention all the boys individually but I promise you - they were good and notable too.  I'm just tired and my fingers hurt...

Weekend recap

Hi its the two Toms here (Nortz and Soarsey) currently spinning on the bikes after a tough game against a Junior A team. The result ended up 7-4 against us, but we put in a good solid performance. The game was extremely intense and a lot of penalties were called. Having a goal disallowed after a suposed high stick from our player which instead came off his shoulder and deflected into there net, beating their OHL goalie.
The weekend has been a great success with high scoring games and the British players scoring the majority of the goals. Due to the shortage of players on some teams, players ended up playing more than their fair share and guested for almost every team. Corey especially lol!
So after a successful weekend its back to the hard routine with on ice training starting tuesday morning again.
Nortzy and Soarsey

Weekend Tourney Round Robin Results

So, I'm a bad loser.  Something I always knew but has become more apparent over the latter part of my life.  My team is out - crap!  We got pumped 18-11 in the first game (to Bully, Nortz, Ward, and Soar) with a notable lack of defense.  We organized a little better for Saturday morning and won 8-4 -- good!  Now, if you've ever participated in a tourney and been in a 1 win-1 loss situation you know that advancing to the semi-finals sometimes is hard to predict.  You have to win your last game and maybe another team has to lose theirs.

So, me being a bad loser, I try to make it so the team who has to lose does!  The team we beat 8-4 needed a guy so I inserted myself (and scored a couple goals) to try to get them on their way to sucess - boom - they won.   Now, all we have to do is win our next game...  GOALTENDING???????????  Honestly, our goalie is a great guy but was just poop on this night.  We lose 12-11.  Neilson out!

But, the boys have been successful.  Impressing all with their skills and speed.  Competing well with OHL and NCAA guys (approx. their age) as well as a couple pros.  The tournament has been a huge success.  I had a chance to see the older guys play in Montreal and it has been my pleasure to see the four young fellas play.  From the stands (because they were in a different division then my team) I got to see Callum and Will play some very good hockey.  They compete very hard and each has a unique set of skills that make them effective and have managed to qualify their team to the semi-finals.  I actually played against Josh Ward and Tom Soar and saw first hand some very good things.  I felt Josh was the best player on the ice in his Friday's match against our team.  He drives the net so well and has a good willingness to turn the corner on the opposing Defenseman.  Tom Soar, is different - what a shot - and is quite streaky.  I feel when he grows into his big frame he will use his immense potential more and I will be encouraging him to consistently offer his top-end skill.

The older fellas have all been good and have made notable impressions on me.  I will follow up tomorrow after the semi-finals and finals with more news but for now... I'm tired and disappointed to have lost my own tourney - despite my best efforts to fix a win.

Asked by someone in an NHL Central Scouting Interview when I was 17:  "would you cheat to win Corey?"

Answer, "Definitely!  I'd trip my 70 year old Mom to win a race."

Hey, it's Callum and Will here.

This weekend Corey has managed to organise a tournement at our home barn on the ranch. The level of hockey varies with players from the Ohl, Junior A, NCAA, Junior B, AAA and pro's. Our teams have all been mixed together to give us the oppurtunity to play with and against diferent classes of players.

We are all gaurenteed at least three games with the oppurtunity of playing in the semi and final. All of the Brit boys have put up a good account of themselves with not one player looking out of place. 

Today we have played a game against Rob and Matt's team with our team pulling home with a 11-6 win. We are all having a great weekend and it is nice to finally play some competitive games. With the tournement being 4 on 4 there is alot of space on the ice and we are seeing the benefits of our training over the past 5 weeks. 

Yesterday we went on a trail ride on the horses which was something new for us all, this was a lot of fun with plenty of funny moments along the way. 

It's good to have Jade with us for these last two weeks, as there never seems to be a dull moment with him in the locker room! He looks in great shape for the upcoming season.

With only two weeks left, we are looking to utilise every minute of training and become the best players we can.

Cyaaaa