Kawartha Cup Trent vs. Fleming: Meet the Men’s Extramural Hockey Team

hockey
Photo by Stephanie Denny

On Saturday February 2, 2013 at 9pm the ultimate showdown between the Trent Men’s Extramural hockey team and their local rivals Fleming will take place at the Evinrude Center. The team is hoping to make this event even bigger and better than the East bank vs. West bank game, and with Monster Energy being the sponsors, and many generous prize donations, it will be a night that will not be soon forgotten.

The tickets for this game are two dollars at the door, and there will be lots of fun activities to participate in such as: a prize raffle, 50/50 tickets and Chuck a Puck. Some of the fantastic prizes you could win are: Coca Cola cooler/stereo system, Monster Energy Products, Trent Athletic Gear, Toronto Raptors Tickets, a Tim Lincecum Jersey and Peterborough Pete’s tickets.

But the team did want the fun to end once the game did, so they asked Sin City to host an after party, and the owners of Sin agreed. Sin City has offered $2.75 Canadian and Coors cans before 12pm but only while supplies last! Once the game is over and you want to have a good time with all your friends and players from both teams, get to Sin quick for some cheap beers and good times. It will be a great night of hockey between cross town rivals for the Kawartha Cup trophy.

Now that you know a bit about the upcoming game, it time you learn about the Trent’s Men’s Extramural Hockey team. At the beginning of the year, the coaches held tryouts, and took all the best players from the intramural league, to form the best teams of all new players they could.

One of these players was Assistant Captain #89 Jeffrey Ryan Minicola, with who I had the honor to sit down and talk with about the upcoming games and how he started out in hockey. This is his third year playing on the Extramural Hockey team, and his coaches chose him to be the assistant captain. He started playing hockey when he was 4 years old when his dad built a rink in the back yard and he used to watch his brothers play, and he wanted to join in on the fun. He’s being playing ever since.

Time to learn about the team dynamics.
The team chemistry at the beginning of the season was a little bit rocky because the coach at the beginning of the year moved away, so everything was up in the air for a little bit, but once the team got their new coach, it brought everyone together, and they are now playing a lot better and working as a team.

As Jeffrey said, “We have a great balance between the two coaches, who both have a lot of experience, and are always there to help us out and give us great expert advice. The teams is really progressing, and are improving as the team is getting to know one another.”

So far this year, the team has played three exhibition games, and has participated in two tournaments. In the first tournament, the team won two games and lost only one, but unfortunately they did not make it into the finals. As for the second tournament, the team made it all the way to the semi- finals but did not make it any further.

The Men’s Extramural Hockey team has three more tournaments to participates in to try and win a place in the championships. The next tournament is on February 1 at the U of T at Scarborough. The teams goals for this upcoming tournament, now that they have a few practices under their belt, they are hoping to win in order to try and guarantee them a spot in the finals, and bring home the medal.

The other two tournaments are February 15th at Fleming/Lindsey and March 7 at Georgian Barrie. Hopefully with all the great support the team has been getting, they will reach their goals. Good luck in the upcoming games boys!

Coaches
Gavin McKnight (Head Coach)
Dave Shearer (Assistant Coach)

Goalies
Trevor Green 1
Jack Barry 33
David Young – Alternative Goalie

Players
Marco Conte 4
Chris McVeety 7
George Ripoll 8
Rory LePage 9
Nick Lidstone 11
Brandon Timmins 14
Drew Hampel (Assistant Captain) 16
Mike Mann 18
Sean Bargent 19
Danny Hyatt (Captain) 44
Josh Brault 66
Greg Trotter
Jeffrey Ryan Minicola (A.Captain) 89
Seamus McDougall 91
Brett Bishop 93
Dan Leone 99
Matt Maclver – Alternate Player