"The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved." - Samuel Smiles"Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward."
Henry Ford
This weekend had our Ingersoll Express on the tail end of a incredibly busy week. Off to Strathroy for the SDMHA Rep Olympics. The above quote from Henry Ford almost perfectly describes the type of weekend the Express had. We started off meeting Tillsonburg at the beginning of the tournament, after tying them the night before we knew they could be taken down and we could be off to a great start. That was not to be the way and we lost starting the tournament down 0-1. The second game of the tournament we knew we would be in for a great battle meeting Mt. Brydges Cougars and out of the gate we looked fantastic and pushed the Cougars onto their heels and fought hard for the puck in their end. This was to be short lived though and after the Cougars were able to pot to quick goals and then our Express hung their hands and played with little to no urgency, and watched the game slip away. Losing a real hard match 0-7. Having the bitter taste still in our mouths the start of the next day would turn out to be a must win for us to continue on in the tournament. The game had us pitted against the tournament hosts with the home town ice under their skates we for the third time in a row found ourselves on the losing end and down 0-3 for the tournament.
With only pride left to fight for the fourth and final game saw us matched up against the undefeated Saugeen Shores Storm. Well pride must be strong with our littles Express train because they would not be beaten. While still not perfect we were able to muster the will to battle and won the match 4-1.
With this learning experience behind us and going out on a winning note. Let's build this train in to a unstoppable machine. Learn that not getting the first goal is not the end of the game, or one bad play is not the end of the season. They are learning experiences that allow you to build and improve on. For all great teams are not perfect and at sometime or another the feel the sting of defeat. It is how you return to the ice as a team. For this is a
T - Together
E - Everyone
A - Achieves
M - More
Looking forward to Thursday night to see how we can continue to build.
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships."
Michael Jordan