Morry is the head coach for a Western side that sits in the cellar of the five-team provincial AAA peewee setup with 16-straight losses. The Western boys have only scored 20 goals while the goaltending tandem has allowed 185 goals in those 16 blowout losses.
Western has not intentions on folding from the league, however.
It’s been a challenge for coach Morry to prepare his players for competition because most of them have never played at such a high level before.
It’s been a tough adjustment for the team, but coach Morry believes a lot of things can be fixed over time and he’s going to be patient because he’s realistic in his expectations.
“The pace of the game, the level of play and the attention to detail is probably not there like it's got to be,” he said. “They don’t understand how important it is for certain aspects of the game to succeed at the AAA level.”
Rolling his lines is something he has been doing all year. He said it’s nice to be able to use the top players for a power-play in a close game, but when the scores are so lopsided he doesn’t see the point.
“When you’re down 5-0 with five minutes gone in the game that’s no time to be breaking hearts in my mind,” he said. “You get more out of playing them all and making them learn what we’re doing wrong than it is to use your best and make it 10-2 instead of 10-0."
Western will host Central Ice Pak for three games this weekend — Saturday 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday 11:30 a.m. — at the Kinsmen Arena II.
The Western team held a practice Saturday night to prepare for the series.
Morry wants to see his players to continue working hard because he believes they can close the gap with Central and TriPen by the time the final weekend rolls around. But he’s not going to mislead his players when it comes to the tough test of competing against St. John’s and TriCom.
