oh9-oh10 Season Awards Banquet Recap

Guess what just washed up on shore along with the dead sea scrolls. Why it's the final chapter of the oh9/oh10 Wes Report featuring the Greece Thunder Hockey Awards Banquet recap. I realize that by now everyone has moved on to other things like golf and sticky lips, spring cleaning and swimming pools, garage cleaning and graduation parties, but I hope you all left an open page in your son's high school scrapbook for this. Enjoy!

I still twitch when I think about how Miss Kim put me on the spot with just 2 minutes notice to deliver the invocation, but thankfully we were all spared when Steven Hebberect's granny (Peg) made a grand entrance and delivered a good ole' Irish blessing to kick things off! While everyone was finishing up their meal, Kim thanked her cabinet and all the parents, grandparents, family and friends who pitched in to make it work. To keep the program moving she invoked the double-clap rule after each thank you was read.

Coach Webb took the podium next and surprised all in attendance with more than a few words. Although, he struggled at the outset to come up with a word that was at the tip of his tongue, causing a rather long pregnant pause (little did Webby know he would later learn that he was "expecting"). Vyper shouted out for him to just make up a word, but eventually it came to him, it was "compilation".

Webby thanked Kim for her great leadership and all she had done for the program during her tenure (she is truly an amazing woman and I dare say if there is ever a Thunder Hockey Hall of Fame, I will personally nominate her for induction in the first class). He went on to thank his coaches, Wader (Pat Wade), Yokin (Erik Geller), and Sof (Pat Sofia), for all of their contributions to this great program. Then he spoke of the 3 goals this year's team set out to achieve. First goal was to win their division. How did they do? Thunder finished their 10th season at 9-6-4-2, coming in second place with an 8-3-3 record in the West Division, and it is important to note that they were the only team in the division to beat the first placed Lightning. Second goal was to make ourselves tough to beat. Indeed we measured well against this goal, as 6 of the 12 games we did not win ended in a tie or OTL, while the 6 games we lost in regulation included 2@1-goal losses, 2@2-goal losses, and 2@3-goal losses. So, clearly we were not giving anything away as we made the other teams earn it and never got blown out. Third goal was to rebuild after going 27-0 the prior year and losing many key players to graduation, juniors, and greener pastures. Not an easy task, but with the positive leadership of this year's seniors and captains demonstrating a fine example of respect, the team overachieved on the ice by staying out of trouble off the ice.

Acording to Josh lacy, Thunder finished a very respectable 6th out of 75 teams who qualified for the New York State Scholar Athlete Team Awards. We were the top team in Section V with an average of 94.504%. Added Miss Kim "Not only were they good boys on and off the ice they are scholar athletes.  Webby……Now we know what they were doing with all of their mischievous time….they were studying…..Who knew……???? Good parenting peops, good parenting."

As Webby announced the players, he commented on Sherry often being late to practice due to driver's ed and how "we were all happy about that". He talked about how much fun Lepore had and how Grims resorted to hugging people instead of killing them. Then came the team awards.

After a rough start to the season, Curran O'Brien (3g-2a-5pts) persevered and finished strong earning himself the Most Improved Player (MIP) Award.

Captains Award was a no-brainer as nobody exemplified a "team attitude" quite like Tyler Mattle. Even after sustaining one of the hardest blows to the head you may ever see, at center ice, he got right back up and got into the play. He was unparalleled in work ethic and was often called upon to win a face-off when needed.

Rookie of the Year went to Justin Simonelli, second in scoring for the team and averaging a point per game with 7g-14a for 21 points. He really has a knack for finding his teammates through even the heaviest of traffic with some pretty nifty passes.

Defensive player of the year went to Steven "Steady-Hebby" Hebberect. What he lacked in size, he made up for in sheer will and determination, as he battled along the wall and in front of the net against bigger players and routinely won those battles to keep the opponent off the board and his team on the attack.

Coaches Award went to Dan "the Vyper" Vyverberg for leading the team both on and off the ice. It takes a lot of courage and a little stupidity to block a puck with your neck (Harr-YYY!!!), but Vyper was always willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the team. He finished third in scoring with 3g-14a for 17pts.

And last but most certainly not least, the cheese stands alone, as your 2009-2010 Greece Thunder Hockey MVP (not to mention Greece Male Athlete of the Year). He led the team in scoring with 14g-9a for 23 points, hey, that's his number! He could part the red sea with that slapper of his, just ask the opposing netminders and D who had their towers buzzed while trying to avoid getting hit by one of his inbound missiles.

Webby closed his season 10 remarks by saying "here's to 20 more years". Who knows, if he hangs in there he just might pass Al Vyverberg up some day as the winningest hockey coach in section five. Vyverberg moved past retired Irondequoit coach Al maerz with his 304th career win in his 23rd season at the helm for the McQuaid Knights this year. Webby then turned the stage over to his captains, Cheese, Mils, and Vyper, for a new Thunder tradition a la the Paper Plate Awards. Not sure if I captured/understood all of them correctly, but here is what i could recall.

- Mattle: bobblehead award
- Hebs: most likely to become a mime award
- Keenan: conehead award (keep your stick on the ice)
- Delucia: watch out for jared award (hurt his shoulder)
- Lerch : most likely to get jumped award
- Sherry: X-Box award
- AC: AC130 is in the air award (from Modern Warfare COD)
- Soeffing: best hair ($5 haircut)
- ASim: silent assassin (in locker room)
- eHoss: who-who-who monkey award
- Simmy: cute little baby award (awe... he's so cute)
- Snake: silent slitherer award
- Keough: most likely to bring a knife to practice award
- Ian: most likely to win american idol award
- Clark: girlfriend texter award
- Ganti: kangaroo jack (subaru) award
- Jared: eh Jared? award
- LePore: ha ha, classic award (hangover reference)
- Grims: most likely to kill someone award
- Ganti, McNeil: chimp awards

Next up were the captains gag gifts for the coaches. Wader received a mega-horn, given his talks are always so quiet and meaningful. Geller's gift is classified. Webby's gift was more serious than a gag gift and was inspired by something he said to the team about goal setting way back when Vyper was an 8th grade manager. He talked about how he wanted to get a house someday so that he could have a dog and well, we all know that Webby bought a house this year. So Vyper thought it would be neat to get him a dog, but given picking out a dog is somewhat of a personal thing and a long-term commitment, instead the captains decided to canvas the team for donations to help Webby buy a dog. Initially rumor had it that webby was looking to find a bassett hound puppy and wanted to name it Elvis, but apparently Elvis left the building, so instead he has decided to go with a black lab puppy and is going to name it Otis. Otis was born about 6 weeks ago out in Victor. Webby and Otis are both doing fine and Otis is expected to come home to Windsor Road at some point over the next couple of weeks. When asked if he is potty trained, Webby thought I was referring to his other house-mate and he replied, "why yes, Wader is potty trained" with a grin. But as usual I digress.

Miss Kimberly closed the banquet by announcing that she was going back on her word and is keeping "pants one". Then as Mattle rolled his picture show, the tissues started coming out for the senior parents. Thunder, there is no other!

OUT TAKES

Former Pres Crisis

DAY-1 (Sun 21-Mar): Trey, Brandon and Gabby report " Just a heads up Miss Kimberly had an accident on the ice tonight and was sent to park ridge for what appears to be a broken ankle. Thought everyone would want to know."; Wes replies "Bummer. Will she be recovering at camp david? Did she get airlifted by Marine One or ground transport via Volvo One or Ridgeline One from the rink to the Hospital? Did you call her Geraldine Ford...and then duck?"

DAY-2 (Mon 22-Mar): Trey reports "Okay so long night at the hospital. She was avoiding another person fell and went skates first into the boards. She had a severe fracture in the same ankle when she was a kid and the bone is a little weak there. It is a spiral fracture on her lower ankle (outside). We are going in today for probable surgery. Thanks for all the great messages. She is enjoying all the well wishes."; "She just got out of surgery and it went great. She is going to be sore for a few days but she will be back to normal in a few months."

DAY-3 (Tues 23-Mar): The former president addresses her Thunder public...
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MY AWESOME PURPLE AND YELLOW FLOWERS.  Arrived minutes after I got home and made my day. I’m happy to report that I now have my own permanent metal devices bound to set off detectors everywhere I go.  Not only did the doctor promise to get me into my skates again but he did one better, he made the entire leg stronger, so Cathy Vyper, you have to help me get my mojo back in those skates.   I will also need a  power walking buddy in about 6 or 7 weeks to work off the excess blubberage I’m sure to inherit in my left bootie. See you on the LAX field for those of you watching the other stick sport……Love you all and for all of your kind encouragement.  Truly familia……
If I could remember the Irish blessing I’d email it but I think it was best said by Peg the other night.  Love that woman….her daughter is a chip off the ol block. Funny…funny, funny sense of humour.
We are not defined by what we achieve... We are defined by what we overcome!!!

Although, one could argue we are also defined by how well our boot is bedazzled, lol.

Still Chasing the Dream

- Former Thunder forward Matt Lane was invited to participate in the 2010 NTDP U17 evaluation camp back in March. Did he make the team? I cannot find a link to the 2010-2011 roster online. Anyone?
- His brother, Philip Lane, was drafted in the second round, 52nd overall, to the Phoenix Coyotes, on Saturday, 26-Jun. Not a bad excuse for missing one's graduation. Check out the interview!
- Mr Big Goal himself, JT Stenglein, was drafted by the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL and will report to vacation bible school this summer before attending camp.
- Thunder all time scoring leader Riley Bourbonnais will play for Berkshire Prep in the Fall of 2010.
- "Big Mike" Rotolo will return to the crease for the Regals U18 team in the fall of 2010.
- Vyper and several other Thunder players got a call-up to play with the Russell crew donning tuxedo jerseys in a heavily scouted beer league tournament at Lakeshore over the spring!
- Parker Bonis may be headed to Detroit?