“The secret to success is doing the best that you can do. Forget about whether you might win or lose. By working hard and practicing the skills that you need to perform, the results will take care of themselves. Being successful is about doing your best.”
Barbara Ann Cochran – Gold medal Olympic skier
The East Greenwich High School hockey team had a very successful weekend. Our Avengers played two games this past weekend and lost both games by one goal. On Friday night EGHS took on Prout and lost 1-0. On Saturday night our Avengers battled Middletown and lost 5-4 in overtime. The Avengers’ level of play, not just their level of effort, was equal to that of their opponents in every way. The teams that the Avengers played both sit on top of the Div. II Central standings. Prout is currently in first place and Middletown is in second place. I would normally try to provide a somewhat witty recap of the games, but I could never find words that would do justice to what EGHS hockey fans were lucky enough to bare witness to this past weekend. Besides, my cardiologist told me that I have had enough excitement for one weekend and reliving these two games would be more than my heart can handle.
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Fundamental fairness prevents me from even trying to name all of the players that played big this weekend. If you really want to know which players came to play, and contributed in ways not yet seen this year, you can simply read the team roster. I can tell you, without any parent like kindness, that sports writer Evan Crawley was correct when he wrote, “The future looks bright for the East Greenwich boys hockey team. This season’s version of the Avengers features a number of young, yet talented players that undoubtedly have a chance to leave their mark on the program at EG.” Anyone that has ever played hockey for EGHS, followed EGHS hockey, or has attended an Avengers alumni game can tell you, this is high praise for our Avengers. Mr. Crawley wrote those words shortly after EGHS beat Portsmouth, and just maybe winning makes a team look good. However, I don’t think any team, win or lose, could look better than our Avengers did this past weekend, including the teams that beat us. From a very young age I have told my son that just because you win it does not mean that you played well and if you lose it does not always mean that you played poorly. This past weekend our Avengers may have lost two games, but by no means did they play poorly.
Up to this point in the season our Avengers, have won the games they should have won, played well against a couple of good teams, lost games to better teams, and suffered through being force fed a giant slice of humble pie by North Smithfield. What we haven’t done, until this weekend, is stand toe to toe with a team that has a winning record and play at the same skill level as teams at the top of the standings. Prout and Middletown are at the top of the standings, and our Avengers skated with them, battled them, and in the end proved to themselves that they could play with them, at their level. The Avengers had one senior on the ice this weekend and not one Middletown fan believed me when I told them that. Our young Avengers have shown that they can play hockey at a level that even the best EGHS hockey teams would have to applaud. Now the task at hand is making it an everyday thing. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” Over the past three months our Avengers have started forming some very good habits. For EGHS hockey the past has been great, our current team is strong, and the future looks bright.
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OK OK I called my cardiologist and he said I could pass on a few statistics but not to over do it so here goes: Sophomore Goaltender Braden Fleming was brilliant in both games and made 78 saves for the two games, Ross Trinque had two goals, Chris Pearson had one goal and three assists, Paul Dunwoody had a goal and one assist, and Max Hagenburg had one assist.
The Avengers will play Mount Hope at West Warwick on Saturday night Feb 15th at 7:00.
GO AVENGERS!!!!