It’s only fitting that the Soo Jr. Greyhounds are celebrating their recent International Silver Stick Atom Minor AA championship win by taking in a hockey game.
The team of nine-year-olds were joined by coach Craig Kennedy at GFL Memorial Gardens Friday night to watch the Soo Greyhounds take on the Saginaw Spirit, just a weekend removed from the team’s Silver Stick finals win in Newmarket, Ont.
“You always need a bit of luck, and it just worked out,” Kennedy told SooToday Friday. “We’re extremely proud all the hard work paid off for the kids.”
The Soo Jr. Greyhounds went 6-0 over the course of last weekend, eventually defeating the Scarborough Young Bruins 2-1 in the championship game.
The squad also went undefeated during the Silver Stick Regionals in Sudbury last month in order to earn a spot at the finals in Newmarket.
This year’s Silver Stick finals win is actually a repeat performance - the same group won the Silver Stick championship last year as in the Novice Major AA division.
“It was a goal from day one when we met back in August,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy himself won a Silver Stick championship with a team from Sault Ste. Marie 25 years ago with his father, George, behind the bench as coach.
More than two decades later, Kennedy gets to celebrate another Silver Stick finals victory - as bench boss - with his own son, Colin, who plays for the Soo Jr. Greyhounds.
“It’s pretty neat that I got to experience that with my own son 25 years later,” Kennedy said.
The significance of that experience, Kennedy says, is something he imparted upon his players leading up to this year’s finals.
“It was actually one of the things I shared in the room before the final game,” he said. “It’s such a special experience for these kids. We talk about how opportunities don’t come along too often, and you have to take advantage.”
“We didn’t know that we were going to win the game, but what we wanted to make sure is that all the kids left everything they had on the ice, and they owed to each other to give everything they had - and we would live with the result.”