Test-Forum 1 » e significance of HP (high-performance) leagues in the P

LONDON, Ont. – They were three years old at the time, sitting in the dressing room of a West Toronto rink, about to learn to skate. They wore matching jerseys that day, the same one with the little hockey player on the front. That was all it took for the two to become friends, friends who are one step closer to a shared dream of playing in the National Hockey League. Best buddies and teammates for the better part of the seventeen years that followed that first chance encounter, Connor Brown and Matt Finn have seen their paths converge once more – their two junior teams recently collided in the OHL playoffs. They are both prospects of the same organization, both picks of the same draft, both likely to become teammates as professionals with the Marlies and maybe one day, the Maple Leafs. Its a pretty cool story, says Brown, the elder of the two, but still the younger looking with short red hair. We dream about it, Finn continues, but it takes a while for a dream like that to develop into something tangible, something real. It was something they could only imagine all those years ago, all the hours spent playing street hockey and mini-sticks with an Etobicoke squad of friends that also included Flyers first rounder Scott Laughton. Finn calls it one in a million that he and Brown would be drafted to the same team. Youre a kid and youre optimistic, you think that you both have a chance to get to the next level, Brown says. I couldnt predict that were both going to be in this organization, though. Finn was picked in the second round of the 2012 draft, 31st overall by the Leafs. He was joined a few rounds later by Brown, his name called with the 156th overall selection. He called me right away, Brown says of Finn. He was pretty excited about the whole thing. We both were ecstatic. I saw him go to the Leafs [and] I was like Oh wow, thatd be awesome. They had been teammates for a span of 10 years or so they figure, right up until minor midget. He was tiny, Finn says of Brown, whom he guessed was barely 5-foot and 120 pounds, but still a force. You could see how smart he was with the puck and his playmaking ability and patience and how competitive he was, but he got overlooked because everyone just thought he was small – he was getting pushed off the puck – he cant play. But everyone grows, everyone is going to get bigger and once he did that, you could really see that part of his game come back full circle. Brown has been the constant underdog, overlooked time and again for one reason or another. Listed at 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds back then, he was picked in the 13th round of the 2010 OHL priority draft – 251st overall. A lot of people always try to doubt Connor Brown, says Leafs assistant general manager and former Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds GM, Kyle Dubas. It became harder to doubt or even ignore Brown this past season. The 20-year-old captain of the Erie Otters led the OHL in scoring, pried away the Red Tilson trophy as the leagues MVP and guided his team to 52 wins and a berth in the Western Conference Finals (they would fall to Finn and the Guelph Storm in five games). He has since sprouted up to 5-foot-11, continuing to add heft and strength to a listed frame of 170 pounds. He definitely just blew expectations out of the water, Finn says, labeling Brown as a very sneaky offensive talent. I dont think anybody would pinpoint him as a guy to do it, but thats been Brownie the whole way. Nobodys ever chosen him to do anything; hes always been small, hes always been kind of an underdog and hes done a great job. Finn was more the sure thing to get to this point. In that same 2010 OHL priority draft, he was gone early, off the board with the 12th overall selection, nearly 240 picks before Brown. He, too, was the captain of his OHL team, steering Guelph to the leagues best record, an OHL championship and a berth in the Memorial Cup last season. Listed at an even 6-foot and nearly 200 pounds, Finn tallied 61 points in 66 games, second amongst all OHL defenders in scoring. The Leafs were surprised to find him there for the taking in the second round of that 2012 draft, hopeful of his future as a capable two-way defender. We were not on the strong side of that too often in the Sault, playing against Matt and playing against the Storm, Dubas says. Hes proven himself over his time in the OHL to be a really strong prospect and its exciting to be on the same side as him versus having him torch us in the Sault with the Storm. Brown and Finn still live five minutes apart from each other in Etobicoke and remain the closest of friends. Their families, too, continue to be tight to this day. And after a four-year hiatus, they are likely to become teammates once more in the AHL, one step closer to reaching their shared goal of playing in the NHL – together. To be able to play with each other at a pro level as opposed to being three-year-olds on a backyard rink is pretty cool, Finn says. Pretty cool, indeed. Kevin Durant Shoes From China .C. United on Saturday night and boost the Unions playoff hopes. Nick DeLeon scored in the 36th minute for United (3-23-6), which had ample opportunities to build on its lead but went its 10th straight match without a victory. Wholesale Kevin Durant Shoes . The 26-year-old Regina native teamed up with Denny Morrison and Mathieu Giroux to win gold in 2010. Makowsky also was 13th in the 5,000 metres and 19th in the 1,500m in Vancouver. He also represented Canada at the 2014 Games in Sochi, helping the pursuit team finish fourth and finishing 28th in the 1,500. https://www.kevindurantshoescheap.com/ . Left back Layvin Kurzawa put Monaco ahead in the 36th minute with a low shot after being set up by midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia, sweeping the ball in after running onto Kondogbias cross from the left. Clearance Kevin Durant Shoes . Paul George and Darren Collison each scored 17 points and Roy Hibbert added 11 points and nine rebounds for the Pacers (9-3), who won their third straight. Kevin Durant Shoes Outlet . Viewers in the Jets region can watch the game on TSN Jets at 6:30pm ct/7:30pm et. The game is also avialable on TSN Radio 1290 in Winnipeg at 7pm ct.On Tuesday, Canada Soccer unveiled its new technical development vision for soccer in Canada, entitled Canada Soccer Pathway. Your Goals. Our Game. The pathway consists of three streams of play: recreational, competitive and EXCEL (the high performance level of the game). On hand to discuss the pathway were Canada Soccer Technical Director, Tony Fonseca, womens national team head coach, John Herdman, and Canada Soccer Long-Term Player Development Manager, Sylvie Béliveau. According to Béliveau, the pathway is "built around the principles of long-term player development and encourages lifelong participation. At Canada Soccer, we believe all players deserve the best possible soccer experience, and our Canada Soccer Pathway is designed to place their needs front and centre at each and every stage." The creation of different streams in youth soccer is long overdue, and a move that is likely to be met with approval across the country. Clubs are the primary delivery agents of the recreational and competitive streams, and in the coming weeks, Canada Soccer will release a national curriculum that supports coaches working with players in the first three stages of LTPD. Canada Soccer hopes to have the curriculum for the rest of the stages ready for release by the end of the summer. The national curriculum will be a valuable resource for coaches – especially for the thousands of volunteer coaches across the country working with young players. The curriculum will contain a "Preferred Training Model" that incorporates "station work", so that clubs that are heavily reliant on volunteer coaches can maximize their resources in order to provide the best development environment possible. The preferred model allows for a four-parent collective approach to training, and frees up the volunteer parent-coach from trying to impart too much technical or tactical information in one session. There are many benefits of taking such an approach at the early stages of player development. It maximizes the availability of coaching and facility resources, it aids volunteer parent coaches by allowing them to pool their knowledge, and it places players into an environment that meets their learning needs, where shorter, diverse sessions are broken up into varying activities of different intensity.dddddddddddd There are some questions that still need to be addressed with such an approach, though. Utilizing a "station work" approach to training requires guidance and oversight from a trained facilitator or coach educator. Do the majority of clubs across the country that are working with players between the ages of 4-12 have coach educators on staff? If not, how does Canada Soccer train coaches to be able to perform this role? Is the long-awaited "Childrens License" that has been in development finally going to be given the resources it needs to be completed? The Preferred Training Model suggests that an assessment-based coaching qualification such as this is required, so one would hope that its completion would be given top priority. More pressing questions arise when one looks further along the Canada Soccer Pathway. Given the significance of HP (high-performance) leagues in the Pathway, will Canada Soccer assume direct control of these leagues? If not, how will Canada Soccer ensure that such leagues will be open to both non-profit community clubs and for-profit private academies? If Canada Soccer is going to leave the operation of HP leagues to the respective provincial associations, how will Canada Soccer ensure that political forces do not undermine technical decisions – like the inclusion of private academies? If we are serious about creating the best possible environments for player development in Canada, then politics have no place in our technical decision-making process. Among the documents released on Tuesday was a community guide for long-term player development, as well as a womens EXCEL program guide for players and parents. Both documents provide some valuable insight into the direction of the game in Canada. Those expecting Tuesdays announcement to contain the answers for all of our developmental woes will feel very underwhelmed. Our problems run deep, and require a series of detailed, long-term solutions. While this is just the first step, it is important to remember that every long journey starts with a single step. I, for one, am hopeful that this step will take us in the right direction. ' ' '