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WAXERS READY
TO PLAY FOR KEEPS The second-year Markham Waxers Junior A Hockey Club Head Coach feels he's armed with a club that possessed with speed. And he hopes that asset will surface Friday when the club faces off against the Wexford Raiders in their Provincial Junior A Hockey League regular season opener at Centennial Arena at 8pm. "I like to find guys that have speed afoot and speed in mind. I like our speed and I think it's our main asset this year." In converting what he felt was an undersized club that won 29 games last season, Herrington hinted the league's adaptation to eliminate the centre red line was a major factor in his decision to seek a quicker and physically stronger squad. Entering the new season with a balance of 12 returning players and 12 new faces, Herrington does not hide the fact his club is not long in the tooth. He remains concerned that mental lapses could surface every now and then. "Experience plays a big role in junior hockey, from the goal right out. You have to learn to play 60 minutes and 49 regular season games. They all count. You can't afford to take a couple of nights off. I think that's the only thing that will take a little bit of teaching." "In terms of performance I don't think we're missing any players and I don't see any gaping holes." Goalie B.J. Forsyth, defencemen Jimmy Ball, Jim Ulcar, Lawne Snyder, Alex Stoyan and forwards Joel Kitchen, Rob Mazzuca, Chris Petracco, David Colucci, Ben Buxton, Rob Burrows and captain Kevin Tompkins headline the returning players. Four local players comprise this year's rookie cast including goalie Chris DelRosario, a member of the bantam Waxers last year; defencemen Mike Stoyan and Mike Harding of the midget Waxers and left winger Ryan Steane. The club also has two players hailing from south of the border in centre Pat Ferris from Philadelphia, and right winger Donald Johnson from Anaheim, California. The remaining group includes forwards Jesse Olden from the North York bantams, Jason Young and Greg Chambers from the midget Red Wings, Paul Robinson from the York-Simcoe bantams and James Regan from North Toronto AA minor midgets. In glancing over this year's roster, Herrington feels it is a more team-oriented group. He also feels there's more talent overall than what he had to work with a year ago in trying to merge two clubs into one cohesive unit.
"With this younger group, I think they will be more hungrier than what we had last year with an older bunch of guys. I think this group will put the team ahead of themselves. That's the biggest difference." "Overall I think our core of guys, our top half of the team this year is better than the top half of guys we had a year ago. And our second half of the team this year is better than the second half of the team last year. We had some guys a year ago that didn't live up to expectations. I see a lot of depth on this year's team." While the obvious goal of the team is to win the league title, Herrington sees no reason why his club cannot win at least 30 games in what he feels is a highly competitive nine-team Southern Division. "There's no pushovers in our division. I think we're in the toughest division with teams like Wexford, Pickering, Oshawa and Thornhill." "To win 30 games would put us within the top four in our division," he predicted. "I'm looking forward to this year."
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