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Well where shall I start? 2004-2005 was a great season for the Aardwolfs, and the SNC in general, we grew as a Club and grew as a League, great to see the Aardwolfs Lightning performing well and
starting to win a few games. Congratulations to the Aardwolfs B Grade team and Aardwolfs Thunder who won the knock out part of the season. The Premier Team still needs a bit more
work...........enough said.
There were several highlights for the season for me...the first one was Glens hard work and finding out that we had received funding for all teams for their Ice Time, then the news that we had
funding for our alternative Blue Playing strip.
This was the deciding factor in setting up the 6th Team in the A League, Aardwolfs Lightning. We had been approached by several people who wanted to play for us and there were several skilled people
sitting in the casual pool. With support from the other A teams in the League we were able to put the team together and make sure that there were three games each Sunday and no Bye for the 5th team.
Other great moments this season were seeing the Phantoms beat the Dragons in the Semi finals, proving that in finals Hockey any team can win on the night, well done the Phantoms, Aardwolfs members,
Scottie playing the game of his life and Michelle becoming a force to be reckoned with. Being on the gate at both of the finals nights for the winning B team and Aardwolfs Thunder, were also moments
to remember.
I see the A grade as the major area of growth for the SNC League, its the area for those improving players who start in the B Grade and out grow it and the stepping stone for those heading for the
Premier Grade. Its also the place people like me expect to end up in a few years time as I slow down.
It will be interesting to see how it grows over the next few years.
On the social side of things, once again we had a great well attended fundraising night at the Grumpy Mole, Our bus trip sold out and we have had several dinners at our various sponsors.
Lets say a few quick words about our sponsors, they are great, Nuggets Bar became a second home to several players over the season and while we were there replacing fluids lost while
playing.......Jeff and the team treated us really well. The Bridge tavern has also come to the Party supplying us with a Best Teams Trophy which will be held there. Our Blacks Shirts are well worn
at all social functions, and our gear bags are the envy of all.
As a Club our support of our sponsors is reflected in the sponsors reaction whenever we are seeking more sponsorship, we have yet to have someone say, "Sorry not this time", that tells me that they
are happy with our level of support and we shall endeavour to continue it. Remember "Sponsorship is a Two Way Street"
What does the Future hold for the Aardwolfs, well, we have noticed what we do this year, others do next, so a few of the things we are doing..........More Practices, Another Southern Migration,
longer and bigger than last year, Trips to the ice, Bus Trip, Dinners, and Lots more Ice Hockey. There will also be some action for our Masters Team with the South Island Masters and a Tournament in
Auckland in March 2006 we are thinking of putting a Team into.
We have also had significant growth in our website and the number of hits, the addition of the Natural Ice reports last year proved to be a central hub for those heading for the natural ice and I
was updating it 4-5 times a week with reports and photos from several people. This year we are looking at purchasing a domain name and moving our site to one server, at present it is spread over
three sets of home pages and its growth is limited. Its time to thank Glen and Kush for their endless hours spent on the web site keeping it current and making it a source of information, news, fun
and a pictorial record of the clubs exploits.
Kushs editorial activities include our weekly game reports that we send out and this is another great achievement. well done Kush.
Next on my thanks list is Nat, early in the season we asked Nat if she was interested in managing the Aardwolfs A Team, and I must say that she has done an exceptionally fine job, the feedback from
the team and all having contact with her has been great. We hope to convince her back next season.
On that note Nat has been so successful we have decided to see if we can find managers and coaches for each of our teams, as Glen and myself will then be able to devote our time more to other areas
of growth for the club. So start looking for people wanting to be a manager, all you need is access to a computer, a mobile phone to text your players, enthusiasm and the ability to turn up most
weeks for the games. Your duties are collecting any monies and looking after those things like Score Bench player lists and making sure your players are turning up. If you are interested please let
me know, complete training will be given........If you want to find out how rewarding it can be, just ask Nat how she felt when Thunder won the Knock-out Competition. As for Coach's some skills and
knowledge of hockey are required and we would match your level of skills with the teams and our support. Let me know..........We have a wealth of talent in the club and it would be great to see,
members putting some energy and support back in and spreading the workload slightly.
As an aside, contact through our website has brought Brigam Jagger to play for us, he has been a great player in our Premier team while over here studying Law at Canterbury. Other contacts include
the Flying Pirates of Vancouver who eventually decided to go to Auckland, approaches from several Swedish and German top junior players who want to come and play for us, and the latest from Jamie
Stark a Canadian living in Korea, who invited us to participate in a tournament in Seoul Korea. This empathises the importance of the Web Site and the opportunities it can bring us.
My Captains Report wouldn't be complete without a reference to great work that the SNC President and Committee have done this year. Alison and the other committee members haven't had a smooth ride
during the season with several hiccups on the way, I would prefer to call these hiccups growing pains, and WE ARE GROWING. I see this as a good indication that overall we have the right mix of
support and guidance from the SNC committee and that our constitution is flexible enough to allow both individual teams as in, The River Rats and Clubs as in the Aardwolfs. Our League is also
structured enough to cover most of the day to day anomalies that raise their heads over the course of the season. Last on my list of people to thank are those core people who we cannot do without,
Anna our treasurer, Troy our Skills coordinator, the Referees, the score bench, Laurence for his work on the SNC Website.
Now for all those who have managed to keep interested to the bottom of this waffle............Some facts and figures, currently the Aardwolfs have approximately 50 playing members and 25 associates,
with 5 teams and an annual turnover of just under $38,000. During the regular season Aardwolfs players turned up 717 times to play 66 games, collectively during the season we won 24 games and lost
37, we drew just 5.
We scored 318 goals from 242 assists, and our goalies stopped all but 333 of the 1431 shots on them.
(Stats from the SNC Web site)
All in all a great season for the Aardwolfs..............
Cheers
Clive
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