Guess who is in first place?

I've never been much on league standings. After all what did it really mean if you lead the standings all season, and got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. But, with half the season now behind us Ashar has topped the league standings in our division with our latest 5-2 victory over Har Torah.

Har Torah had speed, talent and size, but Ashar let them know early that Ashar, GOT GAME.

In a sport where position is everything, our boys showed all that they each knows how to play their position well. While it truly was an entire team effort, special mention goes to birthday boy Eitan Selter and his two goals. Daniel Silvermintz continued multi goal scoring streak, and defensive superstar Joey Katz and his walk-in blistering wrist shot goal.

Mathew Chaimowitz voted Player of the Game for his outstanding work against Har Torahs big man Yossi Aharon. Not an easy task, just ask Mathew.

Hard work still remains ahead though as all the teams will be gunning for a victory against the top team. We will not underestimate any team and we will keep working hard to further improve our game.

New Additions to the Ashar Hockey Program

This week the Ashar Hockey picked up 2 New additions to the Program. Well, 1 and a half additions for now ...

1. Sell your shares of Duct Tape stock, our new floor hockey boards have arrived. Referred to as Boarder Patrol for the company that makes them, our order arrived last Thursday. Well, partially arrived. The second half of the order is scheduled for delivery sometime next week. No more tables and benches turned on their sides attached together with hundreds of yards of duct tape. Say goodbye to the days of visiting teams coming to our school seeing the gym looking like a Bar Mitzvah gone bad. Special panels on the fronts of the barriers are reserved for Ashar Hockey Program sponsor advertising. [A good lead in for our other new item this week ]
   


2. Thanks to the extremely persistent efforts of Coach David Nelson, the Ashar Hockey Program has secured Polariod Corporation of Minneapolis Minn. as our latest corporate sponsor. Digital cameras, portable DVD players and some flat screen televisions sure to assist the program in many ways.

Our first collaboration with Polariod will be the Ashar Hockey Program participation in a Charity Fund Raiser for the Alan T Brown Foundation to Cure Paralysis (www.atbf.org). The Ashar Hockey Program, Terminal Hockey Club and Polariod will donate a 42 inch Plasma Television for the Alan T Brown Foundations Family Fun Day in Manhattan Sunday Feb 12th 2006. Our entire Ashar Floor Hockey team in our schools jersey will roam the event in an effort to sell out the total of 200 boxes ($10,000) on the Take a Chance Raffle to win the 42 inch Plasma TV.

All proceeds from the charity raffle going to the Alan T Brown Foundation To Cure Paralysis.

ESPN Player of the WEEK

There is a reason we chose Players of the Week awards over giving awards to player’s of the game.

While any given player can be lucky enough to score a big goal now and then in a game, it was our desire to point out the player who has put in a consistent effort all week to improve his game and thus strengthen our team.

Our Player of the Week award this week goes to a player who is the first player on our team this season to really equate the concept of 'practice like a game and your ready for the game.'

His focus on his position, understanding the value of playing the man not the ball and his game level hustle at practices earn Elan Teichman this well deserved Player of the Week recognition.

We were lost for a while, but we got there.

The night started off strange when our teams transportion showed up as only a 20 seater bus. After 20 minutes of arranging huge bags of equipment everyone had a seat, except for the coach.

Next, we always seem to get the rookie bus drivers. The ones who don't really know east from west. I like to talk with the boys on the way so I wasn't paying attention. Glancing out the window accidentally, I realized we "weren't in Kansas any more."

After 4 U turns and a players needing air sickness bags, we finally found our next opponent. Westchester Day School.

The strange night continued when the officials failed to show up. Thanks to Gary Fuchs, one of our Ashar parents in the stands for stepping up and offering his referee services.

The refs finally showed an hour late, and honestly our team only started to show an hour after that.

After our last physical victory at home, I asked the boys to turn it down a notch against a small inexperienced Westchester team. I guess notches have changed size with inflation since I was a kid. The Ashar kids stopped short of every play and gave Westchester all the room they needed.

After the 2nd period Dave and I gave the boys a little inspirational speech. Well, actually we just yelled at everyone. Whatever it was, finally in the third period Ashar came out to play.

One of the few players hustling all game was Daniel Silvermintz. I've always regarded Daniel as one of the best all round players on our team. Tonight Daniel made it look like I know what I'm talking about. By the time the night was thru the score was 7-2 in our favor. Daniel scoring his first career Ashar Hockey goal. I guess Daniel liked the feeling of scoring so much he decided he'd do it two more times. Finishing with an amazing 3 goal Hat Trick night.

Word got out fast of Daniels big game and Daniel's cell phone's call-waiting and text messaging was working overtime for entire bus ride home.

Also worth a mention the defensive play of Mathew Chaimowitz. Mathew played an excellent defensive game, helping to set up our third period scoring spree.

Either way it gets put in the books as another win for Ashar. We are on our way...... and tell that kid I am coming to get my 10 Bucks.

Our next practice is schedule for Friday, but the snows expected might cause a cancellation.
Please check your emails for confirmation, before heading out to Ashar this practice.

ASHAR Hockey's first "W"

If you do not show up to win , the chances are you wont. Today, against a solid HAFTR team the ASHAR Hockey team showed up to win. And, win we did in one of the best hockey elementary school floor hockey games every played. It was fast. It was physical. It was exciting. Both teams gave it everything they had. It was a true hockey battle.

If you missed it, you missed something special.

Dave and I are proud of every single member of the team. From those who played so hard, to those who rooted the team on even though they did not get a chance to play.

We wear jerseys as a team. We practice as a team. We travel as a team, and we played as a team.

Special thanks to the parents in the stands who kept the team pumped up with though out the game. It was a big part of our victory.

On the bench, this player was asked to sit out this game. While not the court bench this player cheered on all his teammates whole heartedly pumping our team up. He did get on a shift or two in the end and showed all he could give us his best. Any player who sheds tears wanting to play the game so badly is player of the game in my book.

It is for that dedication that this weeks Player of the Game goes to Eli Muschel.

This one is in the records book boys. Now its time to focus on getting even stronger and setting our sites on our next win. It is a crucial game for us. Without carrying momentum this Haftr win will seem to all others as just a fluke win.

Our next game is against WDS Wed. 12/7 in Westchester. Busses leave right after dismissal. Please pack your light dinners and after game snacks.

We have the ability. Lets keep focused on the task of winning, and keep having fun doing it.

ESPN Player of the Week

When a team hits the court and begins to play as one single unit, you have the foundations of a winning team. This week our team began to see that foundation being formed by the extra efforts of our now #1 defensive line.

Practicing and playing as one, these guys are not just recognized for exceptional play, but for inspiring the entire team to excel. Playing so in sync they both equally reached our ESPN Player of the Week standards.

This weeks ESPN player of the week;
Defensive Unit 1 - Michael Berger and Yoni Levy.
[ ESPN Player of the Week Archives ]

The Zak Rimberg Show

Well we had our first away game of the year to HALB way out in Long Beach Long Island.

In order to try and beat a little bit of rush hour traffic Mr. Frank Allowed the Boy on the Ashar Hockey Team to leave school 15 minutes before dismissal. By 4:50 pm we were on our way.

The kids were great on the long bus rides to and from the game. On the way to Long Beach parents packed meals for their kids and we all shared a nice meal together as a team on the road. Ipods, Playstation Portables and DVD player provided some post meal entertainment. On our way home the team was supplied with boxes of Doughnuts from the 5 Towns kosher Dunkin Doughnuts. Thanks again to Coca Cola bottling Company for the sponsored Powerade drinks.

Before the game the kids from both teams were kind enough to help Dave and I send a message to a dear ice hockey friend of ours. Two days before Eddie Canon, one of our Terminal Hockey Club goalies suffered a massive heart attack on the ice just seconds before the start of one of our game. While none of the boys knows Eddie, he knew the ASHAR team and was one of the sponsors who donated money to the program. Eddie has no kids or grandchildren in our school. He doesn’t live in Monsey. In fact Eddie isn’t even Jewish. But he heard of these boys who wanted to play hockey, and he gave. I want to thank all the boys ASHAR and HALB for the kind gesture made towards David and I on behalf of our teammate and friend Eddie . Thank you. (Picture)

To sum up the game in a few words, it was the ' ZAK RIMBERG SHOW' . From day one of this years Ashar Hockey Program I made it very clear that Zak Rimberg is the best goalie in the league. Wednesday night the coaches of Halb as well as Halb parents came over to me after the game and comfirmed my feeling of Zak. " THAT KID IN GOAL WAS AMASING " everyone said.

Unfortunately for ZAK that could not be said for any members of our team standing before him for the first period.

Many kids get on the court nervous before a game and play timidly in the first period. Our boys had the look on their faces deers have on the NYS Thruway when they see car headlights coming at them. They were out of position, they forgot how to run and in general look bewildered.

At the end of the first period I made everyone take off their helmets to show me a bead of sweat on their heads while Zak laid on the floor suffering from dehydration. A few words of admonishment (that cannot be repeated on a Yeshiva site) and I made it clear to the boys ... I do not see you hustling ... you do not get to play.

A new team came out for the second period. A lot more hustle. Forwards Cooper and Klien did a great job of securing their point positions and keeping fore-checking pressure on.

A lot more sweat and three of our shots made it to the back of their goal. Now showing the Halb gym that the boys from Ashar came to play.

Unfortunately as can be the case through out the season our team suffers from some size and experience issues and a 7-3 loss was the outcome. The Halb coach did tell me after the game, that we were the best team he has played yet. I responded "you have not seen how good we are yet."

So many times I have gotten off the ice from a blow out win without really learning anything to better my hockey game. I can tell you after a loss there is always good lessons learned and those leasons have improved my game tremendously.

I think the boys came away from this game with a few lessons learned and a little more confident in themselves. They see as a team we have what it takes to win if we play as a team. That we all have the responsibility to hustle, and if one doesn’t, he cripples the team.

On the bus ride home we had a quite talk about this team responsibility. I explained to the boys that this ride home was the start of our season. All future games will have only 3 lines made for court time. If I do not see hustle and determination in practice, no matter if you are an 8th grader, captain or alternate captain, whomever, I wont see you on the court in a game.

Kids are starting to gel and show real productive talents. If after 12 weeks of practice, you have not learned that hustle wins, your not gelling ... and your not making my the first, second or third line ... period.

Steve