Jr. Greyhounds hope 2019-20 success helps program get 'back on the map'

There were a lot of questions last summer as the Soo Jr. Greyhounds prepared for the Great North Midget League season.

As the team went through tryouts and the selection process, the final roster was on the young side with eight players considered minor midget aged (players born in 2004).

“When we first got together last spring and we selected eight ‘04’s, we weren’t sure what we were going to expect but we set three different benchmarks – the start of the year, the middle of the year, and the end of the year – to see where we would be as a team,” said Jr. Greyhounds coach Jamie Henderson. “We really thought that at the end of the year we could be peaking and have a really strong team.”

Henderson admitted to potentially “being a little surprised that it happened so quick.”

“That’s a credit to the kids and the work they put in on an off the ice,” Henderson added. “We had a really good group.”

A strong start to the season helped the team to a 28-7-2-1 record, best in the eight-team GNML.

The team had just opened the GNML’s playoff tournament when the season was cancelled due to COVID-19.

The Jr. Greyhounds record was the best regular-season record posted by a Sault-based team since the 2012-13 Soo North Stars went 32-1-0-1 and the best since the Sault program returned to the league in 2014.

“It was something we talked about,” Henderson said of improving the program. “We weren’t shy at the start of the year, we wanted to put the program back on the map.”

“It was something we really wanted to do as a program,” Henderson added. “We wanted to represent the city. We made it the playoffs in two tournaments and that was something we wanted to emphasize (was having success).”

Henderson also called the group “fun to coach.”

“This was a group that really wants to get to the next level,” Henderson said. “For some, that’s going to be the NOJHL, for some it’s going to be college, for others the OHL.”

“There are a lot of kids on that team that want to play at a high level and when you have that, they’re easily coached and they were hungry to get better,” Henderson added. “When you have a team that wants to get better and wants to put in the work, it’s fun to coach.”

Starting early ahead of the regular season is something that the players looked at as a positive, allowing the players to come together early.

“We started practice early and had a little jump to our season,” said Jr. Greyhounds forward Devin Mauro. “Then we started getting along together and playing well together. The younger guys fit in well with the older kids and the older guys really helped the younger kids get used to the league.”

Mauro led the Jr. Greyhounds with 62 points, including 30 goals as one of the eight 2004 birth years on the team.

Mauro was eventually selected by the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves in the 11th round of the OHL draft earlier this month.

Some of the early success brought plenty of confidence to the team as well.

“It was amazing,” said defenceman Mason Chitaroni, a drafted pick of the OHL’s London Knights. “Right off the kicker, we made it to the quarterfinals of the Toronto tournament, which was huge.

“Going down with some minor midget players and doing as well as we did was amazing to start the season off,” Chitaroni added. “Carrying into more tournaments as the year went on, we kept doing really well. The guys were amazing this year. I couldn’t ask for a better team. It was a weird way to finish up the season for sure, but overall, it was a great year.”

The team had three players selected in the OHL Priority Selection earlier this month as defenceman Connor Toms was also selected in addition to Mauro and Chitaroni.

Toms was a third-round pick of the Soo Greyhounds in the draft, held on April 4.

“You’re always going to have players that think it’s better to move on, and for some, it might be,” Henderson said. “There’s no reason why a player can’t stay here in Sault Ste. Marie and develop, and I think our program is showing that that’s definitely possible.”