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Welcome To The Home Of "THE"
SOUTH STARS BANTAM ALL-STARS
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STARS COMPLETE SEASON 29-12 KNOCKING OFF SEVERAL BUCKEYE TEAMS ALONG THE WAY
March 28, 2009
The Midwest Tournament closed a very successful season for the South Stars who won 29 games and lost 12 with no ties for the season.
The Stars out scored their opponent 165 to 82 or for an average of 4 goals for and 2 against per game. Shots on goal were 1026 for and 373 against or nearly a 3:1 advantage for the Stars. It is very impressive when a team can hold their opponents to 373 shot over a 41 game season; this is an average of only 9 shots against the team each game.
Moreover, our coaching staff did not shy away from teams and only play All-Star teams, they scheduled as many "A" rated travel teams as they could which makes these stats much more impressive.
Many players stepped up this season and took very active rolls during the season, but as stated by Coach Willis the difference between our best players and weakest players is barely measurable, which allowed the coaching staff to be comfortable putting any player on the ice at anytime.
However, I must mention two players - both have "jobs" where most of the pressure of winning is directly pinned on their shoulders. Both of these athletes had never played at this level and were both Pee-Wee's. Betz and Canaster both stood up to the challenge and had very respectable Bantam Travel Hockey years.
While there save percentages are not huge, you have to keep in mind that these to goalies had never seen shots coming at them at 80 to 90 miles an hour, neither had played at an "A" travel level and both did a very respectable job between the pipes. Both showed moments of brilliance as well.
Betzs' save percentage was .751% 213 shots against, 160 saves, a record of 16-7 with 7 shut-outs.
Canasters' save percentage was .702% 94 shots against, 66 saves, with a record of 6-5 with 2 shut-outs.
While net-tending is important, fore checking, and back checking is equally important and our forwards did a great job in this area all year, teams found it nearly impossible to get past our forwards with or with-out the puck. It became very apparent that many teams did not want to challenge our forwards, as they knew they where going to get hit hard, Eckerle, Willis, Zanzalari, Simpson, Wehrle, Schubauer, Terhune and Maxwell became very physical and they challenged teams to get past them with the puck and if they tried these guys usually made them pay the price.
DeHart; what can we say, he was missed after being injured with two concussions in a short time. DeHart picked up a lot of goals, by being in the right position in front of the goalie. Taylor's offensive presence over the last 7 games may have made a difference in a few of the close games that we lost. What many of us did not see was DeHart getting pounded in front of the crease all the time, he was a force, many times picking up the rebound for a goal or screening the goalie allowing someone else to score.
Our Defense was the strongest defense that I have seen on one team - - ever. (not counting College or Pro) I would put these six guys up against any travel team and most of the High School teams in the state.
As a group, they controlled the neutral zone allowing the forwards to aggressively fore and back-check, they collectively accounted for 124 of the 338 points with 50 goals and 74 assists, 446 shots and only 3 penalties per game.
King led this group with 17 goals, 15 assists and 32 points; though bringing up the group from there, it was fairly even, Tidd 26 points, Korth 20, Jackson and Winkler 17 and Clemens 12.
Clemens was certainly the center of this group mentally, and rarely did you see Clemens or his partner being beat and Clemens led the +/- at +42 on the year. Clemens is an all around defensive player or as coach stated a defensive defense minded player. As a defensive group they averaged a +/- of +32.
As well, several in this group were asked to take on different rolls offensively which they did unselfishly and at times leaving only 2 defensive lines playing.
We had a very hard hitting team, but usually did not come out playing physical. Many teams thought they would come out and "out hit" us, but soon found out that they could not, we had 15 players who would use their body to hit and several who hit bigger than they really were which was deceiving to the other teams. While you could always depend on a few to hit at any chance, everyone stepped up when needed.
This team worked together well on and off the ice which was a very important aspect to the success of the team.
Then there is the coaching staff, we could not have asked for a better team of coaches. They complemented each other greatly, and coached the team to provide these players with every opportunity to learn the game from a technical aspect.
It is unusual that you have a group of coaches that all the player’s respect, and all the players listened to and respected each coach’s ability to teach the game.
Thanks to the coaches, and their families for putting in all the time and effort to make this a successful season.
Most of the players on this team will move up to the High School ranks next year and I can’t wait to see them bring the High School State Title to the South Stars program and make Southside hockey a regular name around the area.
Thanks to the new family friendships made this season, this is a group of remarkable parents and families!!
Thank you for the opportunity to provide stats and administer this webpage. Stats are very hard to take, and Darryl and I believe these stats are within 5% +/- of being correct. I truly thank each parent for NOT complaining about the stats, as this can be a very thankless job. I would like to thank a few others who help with the stat numbers during the games, Russ Clemens, Brian Tidd, and Eric Winkler. These guys stood near every game helping with goals, assists, +/-, shots against and for. Thanks guys.
Lastly, Jim Jackson --- WOW what can I say, to have your camera or video camera up to your eye during the game is remarkable as you missed many aspects of the game to provide these pictures and videos to our team. What an important part of the season. I thank you; commend you for all the time during and after the games that you put in to provide the coverage that you provided. The CD that you provided each player and family is wonderful, and was certainly time consuming for you and your family.
Jim; thanks go to you from all the All-Star families.
See you around the rink next year and best of luck to all the boys in all of your endeavors.
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