U11A Mohawks make semis
Courtesy Kyle Zacharie
The U11A Mohawks continued their run at the 30th Notre-Dame-de-Grace (NDG) provincial tournament late last week, but they were unable to bring home a banner after losing an overtime heartbreaker 2-1 to the eventual champion St. Laurent Warriors.
Losing a game under those circumstances can be tough for anyone, but at such a young age, it is important for those emotions to be processed, according to the team’s coaches.
“Emotions are always high after a game like that, win or lose. We give the players a few minutes to decompress and remind them that first and foremost, it’s a game and nothing more,” said Mackenzie Kirby, the team’s head coach.
“As a coach we need to let them have their moment to let out their emotions, in the end we focus on the positives, look towards the future and make sure they leave with their heads up. It’s tough, but we still have a long season ahead of us, and a lot of hockey left to play,” said assistant coach Kyle Zacharie.
Zacharie said that the team has grown a lot in the last two weeks, which contributed to the still solid tournament result and the very close semifinals game.
“The team played an outstanding game, and each team had their opportunities to end it,” said Zacharie.
“Passing, positioning, roles are all starting to fall into place. We had several players break through over the last two weeks. We’re starting to see the little things from practice click come game time,” said Zacharie.
Kirby, for his part, emphasized teamwork as the biggest contributor to their recent success.
“Before the game, we spoke about needing to play like a team to have a chance at winning and the team did exactly that - they played as a team,” said Kirby.
“I think the biggest thing is seeing the players starting to realize what they can accomplish as a unit rather than on an individual level.”
To get to the semifinals, the Mohawks took down the Westmount Wings 7-0, in a game that ended early at the request of Westmount’s coaches.
The U11 Mohawks will have one more regular season game at the Kahnawake Sports Complex before a two-week holiday break, on December 20 against the Verdun Leafs at 1 p.m.
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“We still have more than half a season to play, so we encourage the community to come out and support these kids. They are definitely putting in the work and deserve a good following,” said Kirby.
