Well, the Cleveland AAA 99 Jr Jacks have reached the halfway point of the 2009-2010 season and looking back have gotten off to a great start and have made some solid progress in this their second full season.  Under the watchful eyes of coaches Bill Menges and Rob Krueger, our boys have compiled a 24-13-1 record so far and have remained ranked in the Top 25 in My Hockey Rankings and the Top 20 in Youth Hockey Report all season.  Along the way they’ve had some great wins against the likes of the Buffalo Regals, St. Catherines Falcons, Assabet Valley, Mississauga Rebels, Madison Capitals, Washington Little Caps, LA Jr Kings, New Hampshire Avalanche and ,Oh Yeah, the Cleveland Barons.  They’ve outscored their opponents 146 to 105 and keep a respectable 2.76 goals against average.  Sure, we’ve also had some tough and disappointing losses against Rochester, Syracuse, Victory Honda, Compuware, Chicago Fury, the Valley Warriors and those same Barons but the boys have always come back stronger the next game.  This is a sign of good things to come.

As we look forward to the rest of this season and on into next season, remember that winning is a process and our 99 Jr Jacks are well down that road to being winners.  I’m sure you’ve all heard the same old clichés, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, “You’ve got to walk before you can run”, “You’ve got to fall before you can fly”, etc., etc.  This way of thinking and this process has never been more true than in the game of hockey.  Successful teams must first lose so that they can learn how to win!  Just take a look at recent hockey history and you’ll see plenty of evidence.  Two seasons before they won their Stanley Cup, the Penguins were bounced in the first round of the playoffs by Ottawa.  The next year, they got revenge on Ottawa and made it to the cup finals but the lesson was not over as they had to watch on their own home ice as the Red Wings beat them in six games.  The experiences of those two previous playoff years no doubt had a tremendous effect on their ability to finally reach the pinnacle this past Spring.  Same for the Red Wings.  They took several years and several losses before winning their championships.  Heck, even the most prolific offensive juggernaut of all time, the Edmonton Oilers, were swept by the NY Islanders in their very first Stanley Cup final.  What all these teams have in common, along with many more sports teams throughout history, is that they all had to lose in order to learn how to win.

Last season, the 99 Jr Jacks didn’t make any tournament playoffs.  This year, they’ve made the playoffs in all four tournaments winning one in Rochester and narrowly missing the semifinals at Nike Bauer and the finals at the Reebok Little Caesars and Boston Valley Warriors.  They’ve added new and key components to the team and they are all better hockey players since the beginning of the season four short months ago.  More importantly, they are all fine young men who are far more mature than their 10 years would indicate.  The rest of the season will be challenging and the emotional ups and downs of this sport will continue but rest assured our boys will be prepared to deal with whatever comes their way.  Look out! The Cleveland AAA 99 Jr Lumberjacks are a team on the rise!