GOJHL Combine and Spring Camps

[Oglethorp]

The GOJHL 1st combine came and went last weekend. Has anyone heard any feedback on it:?

Spring camps get underway this weekend in LaSalle and Sarnia. Coming up shortly Leamington will start its rebuild as well as the Chatham camp gets underway. Later on London goes head to head with Strathroy on the same weekend followed by Lambton Shores, St Marys and St Thomas. Is it just a coincidence that the more competitive teams hold earlier camps than the others? London has the largest pool to draw from so it won't matter when they hold theirs and St Thomas benefits from OHL send downs to an extent. Lambton Shores and St Marys have moved into London for their camps in a bid to attract more London cuts. Obviously going early has its advantages in that your team gets first crack at the players coming out of Midget hockey with the exception of the London residents who have to go to London's camp 1st.

[cpt obvious]

It's an absolute embarrassment for St.Marys and Lambton to hold their respective camps in London..They are clubs located 30-45 mins outside of London to begin with, St.Marys should be recruiting east of town towards Kitchener area where there is just as many talented players, hell, if Ayr can ice a top notch Jr C team then why can't the Lincolns pull talent from that area? Lambton should be recruiting west of town towards Chatham and Sarnia. There is more than enough talent towards the border to go around for those three clubs. Then add 1 or 2 kids from London if need be to fill out your roster. Because the truth is if you are getting the "left overs", theyre not very talented to begin with and if they do turn out to be diamonds its only a matter of time before they ask to go play for the Nationals because that club is far more superior than those two organizations. The real questions are, who is making the hockey decisions in these two organizations? Why are they still making hockey decisions in these two organizations? Let hockey people make hockey decisions, baseball skippers and land developers do something else...like anything other than make hockey decisions. Just my opinion.

[Oglethorp]

I believe Ayr is an affiliate of the Kitchener Dutchmen so that may not be a good example. St. Marys could try to draw from Woodstock/Ingersoll/Dorchester as well as going after some Stratford cuts as they are the choice of destination for Huron Perth grads. St Thomas is generally the preferred destination of the London left overs so jumping into a 3 way battle over table scraps with Strathroy and Lambton Shores hasn't worked out well for them in the past. As for Lambton Shores a thought of relocating to a better market needs to be a consideration soon. Sarnia minor hockey has some very lean years approaching so there won't be any excess talent coming from the west, nothing much to the South until you hit Chatham and to the North is a lake. They could go East and to try to get the ones in Strathroys backyard that they don't know about, but most of them would not choose to go to the Shores if they have other options.

[ILuvHackey]

Ayr is Cambridge's affiliate.

[ILuvHackey]

Apparently Cambridge is having their camp this weekend. I might head to the rink to see what they've brought out! Anyone else going to head that way?