Provincial History & 2011 Re-Cap

Throughout the history of the OBHA the London program has produced limited success at the provincial stage. According to their archives and my memory we have produced the well known Provincial Glass team from the mid to late 80’s who took the 1987 “B” Provincial Championship and capped off their success with an “A” Provincial Championship in 1990. We then had a decade drought throughout the 90’s despite strong showings from the Forum/Sting team who eventually got London back on the map in 2001 by again winning us the “B” Championship as the London Sting. Until recent years the London program was a very small organization compared to many other leagues around the province so these prior accomplishments were tremendous feats not just because of the high level of play they were competing/winning at but also because our over all talent pool was fairly small in comparison to other cities.

Around 2005 our London League fell out of the “B” provincials all together failing to send a competitive team and was now looked at as a “Mickey Mouse” league in many eyes(on an operations standpoint) especially those outside of London circuit. Therefore our program was in a rebuilding stage when the league changed hands and became the L.B.H.A. (London Ball Hockey Association).  With new ownership and a new name, came new hopes and energy to a sport that was seemingly just going through the motions for the previous few years and was struggling to grow.

The “Fury” got us started in 2008 with our first ever top 5 finish at the “D” provincial level as they took that tournament by storm and placed a surprising 5^th place! Our program continued to improve a year later when “Tiger Jacks” took our “D” level of play up a notch and lost a hart breaking final by 1 goal to finish 2^nd place. Our “C” team in 2008 had a tough go and finished 27 out of 32 but the “Outpatients” with the help of a few “Ingersoll Assassins” drastically improved our ranking by placing 14^th in 2009 and set the stage for further improvement the following season. In 2010 Tiger Jacks once again led the way by placing 2^nd once again but this time at the “C” level with the assistance of some “Ingersoll Assassins” they missed taking home the championship by 1-0 defeat which was another heart breaking loss to the same Chatham Coyotes that beat them the year before in “D” Final. En route to their second place finish, Tiger Jacks had the bitter/sweet task of knocking off a fellow London team that was also displaying a strong effort at the provincial level. The Tiger Jack team beat out London’s “Norstar Consulting” team in a tight game but the Norstar loss left London with 2 for sure top 8 finalists at the 2010 “C” Provincials.

 At The “D” provincials London grew in some aspects but took a step back in others…..because our program had grown so large we were granted with 4 teams at this level which was by far our greatest showing in regards to quantity of teams. Unfortunately with 4 teams in the mix of the 53 “D” team tournament we could not crack the top ten but  we did have two very strong showings from our “Chronic Snipers” and “Strykers” who finished 11^th and 18^th giving us solid seeds for the 2011 season and both our “C” and “D” programs were in fine form. Also with “Tiger Jacks” efforts, London was once again going to be at the “B” level as a league for the 2011 season.

The LMBHA (London Minor Ball Hockey Association) was formed in 2009 and 2010 was our Minor programs first test at the provincial stage. Our Tykes battled hard and were defeated in an exciting final which gave us 2^nd place in our first ever appearance which was a tremendous achievement for a first year team from such a young organization. Our Novice and Bantam Teams also displayed great efforts en route to semi final games before bowing out in their respective divisions. None the less two more top 5 finishes for our first year London Provincial Youth teams. 

With strong efforts in 2010 we set the bar high for our youth teams at this years provincial tournament but our kids did not disappoint. Our Tykes led the way by taking home top spot in their 2^nd season and with a relatively small squad in regards to numbers. Our novice team was also on the low end but this did not stop them from bringing home 2^nd place this year and high hopes for winning it all next time around.  Our Atoms, Peewee and Bantams all had tremendous runs as well as they all made it to the Semi Finals before getting knocked out. Our Youth Program is still miniature compared to many Ontario ball hockey organizations but with the success our children have had thus far it’s easy to see we will be knocking on all possible doors in the years to come

2011 saw tremendous growth once again for the LBHA as a whole since we built upon the success of our two new divisions (Open Masters & Ladies), these new divisions were introduced to league play in 2010 and were going to take their first crack at the Provincial stage this summer. Our Masters team had two strong games in London’s first ever Master’s showing on the provincial stage but fell short on the scoreboard before being eliminated in a disappointing game 3 but our foot is now in that door and as a league we will know what to expect moving forward at that level. Our ladies program was granted two provincial seeds this year which was also London’s first ever appearance for the Ladies Provincial scene. Representing London was our Playoff Champions “Still Game” who grabbed some help from the “Lynx” and “Feisty Kittens” teams. On top of that David Dudzic (Norstar Consulting GM) was generous enough to devote his time to spear head a Ladies Division All-Star team for this event. The team had representatives from all London teams aside from “Still Game” and even had a few LMBHA players on the squad as well. Both teams struggled out of the gate losing their first game each, however, our London Ladies showed great resilience as they each quickly bounced back and won their following games until meeting in the quarter finals. Both teams battled for their provincial lives in a great 1-0 game that saw the London Selects squeak by with the victory and in doing so moving on to a semi final game and the “Still Game” loss gave London two teams in the top 8 at the Ladies “C” level. Our London Selects looked to steam roll into the finals as they built an early lead but briefly lost a<