Asunto: U19 Handball NT

Damn, we been killin' it!

Played on Low and was resting a few of our starters.
Now 7-0

That's remarkable. Well done!

Loss Donovan (went to team with poor facilities) and Ezra Hewlett because team folded. Crap!

15. Archie Bruce 468 Reflex
14. Eric Ashton 470 Jedi
13. David Taylor 483 Kitchener
12. Cale Sakic 491 Yardware
11. George Gignac 503 Royal City
10. François Gordon Geaorgian Bay
9. Ezra Hewlett 515 Lollipops
8. Laurent Ormond 527 Cellar
7. Gordie Huntley 531 Jedi
6. Barry Clement 532 Georgian Bay
5. Pascal Doucette 538 Jedi
4. Rigoberto Crawford 563 Royal City
3. Randy Ryan 570 Georgian Bay
2. Tommy Duchesne 581 Jedi
1. Trevor Donovan 589 Georgian Bay

On the bright side, Philippe Heggs has edged everyone up to Sakic on this list, he's 510 OR now (vs 538 for Sakic)?

Remind me when these deadlines are. I don't mind burning cash for the sake of prospect development.

Darn, we're pulling a lot of close games, with a clear disadvantage in team ratings for the most part.

I'm gonna have big shoes to fill next season!

Last two games really hurt:
Canada vs Slovenia 29:31
Canada vs Slovakia 32:34

Need a big game tomorrow vs the Czechs

We have our call-ups for the first game, folks!
Most will be good for the season, some may change over the course, but I will always try to make sure they're set by Thursday morning

Starting to analyze potential gaps over the next season(s), and one big gaping hole I'm seeing is a defensive pivot (should be 17-18 this season, 16 if we're desperate). If any of you have a guy you think might do the job.

D-Wings would also be a hot commodity. I'm secretly hoping Xavies and I have just missed some gem that'll pop up here? Haha.

For pivots, quality-wise, our best bet would've been Tyson Hathaway , but he went to a team with crap facilities... and the next best bet is one of our 18yo offensive pivots (there are 2 of them, they're quite similar, but the highest block quality goes to Charles Sakic , but he might be a bit better down the line than Shawn Linton due to qualities, even though he's behind right now.)

Then we're down to Philippe Heggs , who's my 16yo defensive wing prospect, but he could do just as well as a pivot so it's not too late to change him... but that means we'd be playing with a 17yo on the main team next season O_o

Not a good week for the U19 team, as 2 of our regular call-ups are injured (for 7 and 9 more days, too. Geez!). But thankfully, this week is a friendly, so DelaRossa gets to play on wing

Ugh, lost against austria again. Not for a lack of trying this time, but the injury to Weston came at the worst time. Defensive wings are not a hot commodity on our team, and Johnston had to fill in on the wrong side on top of that (he did score 3 fast breaks, but that doesn't make up for his lack of defensive help). I wrestled with the idea of having one of our fastest backs play the position instead. Maybe I shouldve gone that way :/

I tried, but in the end we weren't able to pull the same upset we had against Serbia to keep us in the top 3 of our group.

So now I guess the focus will be trying to get the younger players some chemistry. By the way, if any of you have defensive wingers or offensive backs to submit to the cause...

Our d-backs will all be 19yo and that's going to be huge for our defense next season. But our o-backs are going to be 17x2 and 18 so our scoring will have to come from the pivot and wings (DeLarossa is thankfully already a year above so he's basically a 19yo, haha).

If Serbia loses to Austria by 16 in the final game we could still slip in (not going to happen).

Total agreement on our final friendly of the season being an opportunity to build chem for the younger guys - be sure to play on VH.

I'll update the Google Doc in the next few weeks to help identify any top young talent to consider for S15

I've been keeping up with trying to scout the 16/17yos I haven't yet. Some of our players on the team have gained all of like 20 OR over the season, so they're not super useful anymore.

And an edit to what I said about the o-backs: they're 17 and 18 now, so we'll have 2 18yos and 1 19yo out there. Which isn't so bad, but not ideal.

Anyways, hope you guys will give me another chance to bring some glory to our young guys next season!