Goal-setting can be a minefield, especially coming off a season in which you failed to make the playoffs.
That didn’t deter the Cochrane Generals. Having put their 2013-14 transition year behind them, Gens marched into their 2014-15 Heritage Junior Hockey League campaign with a clean slate and a fresh crop of recruits.
Gone were former captain Tyson Soloski, Andrew Bergmann, Dan Bunnah, Ian McRae and goalie Matt Shawchuk. In their place came Slater Ransom, Connor Rendell, Chad Harrison, Colby Chartier, Steven Tisdale and goalie Ty Robinson.
Armed with raw recruits in a new campaign, the Generals’ blitzkrieg through the HJHL regular season caught a several foes off guard. But Cochrane had a battle plan, with attainable goals in place.
“At the beginning of the year, we wanted to teach these players how to win,” Gens second-year head coach Evan McFeeters relates. This is his team now. Eleven players he coached while with the Bow Valley Midget AA Timberwolves are Generals. He brought in assistant coach Dan Gendur this season. All in an effort hit the targets McFeeters set out before them.
“It was more than just coming out there and playing 60 minutes. It’s a whole season long trying to accomplish a goal at the end of the year. We’ve accomplished our first goal getting home-ice advantage in the first round.”
Chris Hugo, in his second full Gens season and wearing the captain’s C for the first time, was on board from the opening shot and played a key role in the planning of, and attaining, the team’s regular-season goals.
“Evan and I talked in November, and we looked at the standings. We saw Coaldale was a fair amount ahead of everybody,” Hugo said, noting Coaldale Copperheads’ dominance in the standings. “Setting that goal at that time we thought wasn’t very realistic to try and catch them. So we said as a team we want to finish in second place in the South and get that bye. That was a long time ago.”
With second place in the South secured, a fresh set of playoff goals await. Hugo is optimistic, but acknowledges the pitfalls of great expectations.
“We’re definitely going to look at each series individually. We’re not going to look ahead,” he says between signing autographs for the throng of Cochrane Minor Hockey players crowding into the Generals’ dressing room following Cochrane’s 6-4 win over Medicine Hat. “But our final goal is to be playing in Westerns, obviously. That’s every team’s goal. But we’re going to look at it one step at a time.”
That guarded optimism has put the Generals on solid footing marching into the second round of the HJHL playoffs. Only time will tell as to how deep it takes them into the post-season fight.
