T-Birds move their players up
Not only do Soo Thunderbirds win championships but the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League powerhouse does a good job of developing players for a higher level.
Case in point is that no less than five players from the Thunderbirds 2014-2015 championship team are either playing in the Ontario Hockey League or at the Division 1, National Collegiate Athletic Association level this season.
1998 birth-year forwards Boris Katchouk (Soo Greyhounds) and Nicolas Sicoly (Guelph Storm) and 1997 birth-year goalie Mario Culina (Windsor Spitfires) are all OHL rookies while 1997 birth-year defencemen Owen Headrick (Lake Superior State Lakers) and 1994 birth-year blueliner David Radke (Colorado College Tigers) are both collegiate freshmen.
Then there is current Thunderbirds defenseman Caleb Boman, who has a future Division 1, NCAA commitment to play for the Niagara University Purple Eagles.
To be sure, while it is the aim and intent of Thunderbirds management to repeat as NOJHL and Dudley-Hewitt Cup, Central Canada champions this season, both president-director of hockey operations Kevin Cain and general manager Jamie Henderson have made it a mandate to move players on to a higher level of the game.
In fact, it was Cain who took it a step further this season and enlisted veteran NOJHL scout Charly Murray as a special assistant whose duties include promoting Thunderbird players to his many contacts at the Division 3, NCAA level.
As Murray has correctly noted, there are a number of exceptional Division 3 programs that serve as an attractive alternative to players who may not get a Division 1 commitment.
Over the years, during gigs in the scouting/player personnel department with the erstwhile Northern Michigan Black Bears and to a lesser extent with other NOJHL teams in Blind River, Elliot Lake and Cochrane, Murray helped set up and arrange Division 3 visits, opportunities and commitments for well in excess of a couple of dozen players.
I don’t understand how the Soo Thunderbirds are still a team with the lack of fans. They still manage to get sponsors, and yet still play in an empty Essar Centre.
Its the same old story – if your market has an OHL club, any Jr. A club attempting to share the market is likely going to depend on friends and family for attendance. Its why there’s a team in Powassan – they couldn’t make a go of it staying in the Bay once the Battalion landed. Even the Nipissing U. Lakers went from nice numbers down to drawing flies for the same reason. O clubs are like black holes in smaller markets vacuuming up the majority of sponsor and ticket sales.