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 Team History |
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The 1992 Flint Icelanders
1997: The 1992 Selects (5 year olds)
The 1997 season marked the beginning of the 1992 Flint Icelanders. That year 28 special boys were selected from the EMHA Novice program and were divided into 2 teams, one team was called Rob's Raiders and the other was named Brad's Bombers. The Raiders were Carter Foguth, Zach Yee, Lance Newman, Jon Barr, Josh Hosking, Justin Fisher, Nik Keene, Danny Jordan, Vaughn Mortimer, Sean Swigert, Alex Jakubic, Spencer Spurlin, Sammy Wilbur and Nate Snyder. They were coached by Mike Van Norman and Rob Wishart. The Bombers had Andrew Lay, Austin Giesey, Alex Reno, Casey Goward, Antonio Schippono, Garrett Hudson, Gavin Rustin, Zach Makimaa, Niles Owen, Dalton Hammond, Dane Genord, Luke Connor, Tyler Merritt and Spencer Hill and they were coached by Mike Van Norman and Brad Van Norman. The boys developed very quickly as they practiced and played each other through-out the year. It was a fun and exciting 1st year.
1998: The 1992 Selects (6 year olds)
The 1998 season was the 1st time that we would become one team. It was very hard to choose 16 players out of the original 28. There were 35 boys trying out for 16 spots. Austin Giesey had moved to Traverse City which left 27 plus 8 others trying out. When it was all over the new team was Luke Connor, Carter Foguth, Dane Genord, Dalton Hammond, Spencer Hill, Josh Hosking, Alex Jakubic, Danny Jordan, Nik Keene, Andrew Lay, Zach Makimaa, Vaughn Mortimer, William Peltier, Nate Snyder, Spencer Spurlin and Zach Yee. The decision was made to drop the Raider name and go with The Bombers. Tommy Reed was added as goaltending coach joining Mike Van Norman, Brad Van Norman and Rob Wishart. The "Bombers" quickly became a household name around the rink as they showed superb skills and determination ending the season with a 14-11-3 record and winning the EMHA Mini-Mite Championship.
1999: The 1992 Selects (7 year olds)
In 1999 the Bombers added 5 new players, Matt Bowman, Dominic Gutierrez, Will Dawson, Marcus Wojtkowicz and Ivan Gaydayenko. They joined Carter Foguth, Andrew Lay, Dane Genord, Spencer Spurlin, Zach Makimaa, William Peltier, Nik Keene, Vaughn Mortimer, Danny Jordan, Alex Jakubic, Spencer Hill and Dalton Hammond to make up the 1999 team. Coaches John Wishart, Dominic Micketti and Ken Micketti came on board to help with the team. The Bombers had a very successful year playing some of the best teams in Canada, Ohio and Michigan. They won 2 Canadian tournament Championships and their 2nd EMHA tournament championship, finishing the year with a 31-16-2 record.
2000: The 1992 Selects (8 year olds)
The 2000 season brought several changes with it. Three Bombers left to join other teams, three new players were added to the roster and three exisisting players were moved to new positions. Joining the Bombers for the 2000/2001 season were Dalton Bates, Jared Trebtoske and Austin Giesey. Danny Jordan who was in his 4th year and Matt Bowman who was in his 2nd year with the Bombers were moved to Defense joining Dane Genord, Alex Jakubic, Jared Trebtoske and Dalton Bates. The loss of Will Dawson, Dalton Hammond and Dominic Gutierrez left some big holes in the defense but the new Blueliners dug in and lifted the team to the next level. Four year veteren Vaughn Mortimer moved from defense to Left Wing. Vaughn joined William Peltier, Spencer Spurlin, Carter Foguth, Ivan Gaydayenko, Andrew Lay, Zack Makimaa, Nik Keene and Austin Giesey (who had returned from Traverse City) on the forward lines. Returning for his 4th year in the Bomber net was goalie Spencer Hill. Working with Spencer for the 1st time as a Bomber goalie coach was Kenny Groat who joined assistant coaches John Wishart, Ken Micketti, Dominic Micketti, Brad Van Norman and Adam Keasler. The "New Look" Bombers worked hard to become the best passing, forechecking and backchecking Bomber team to date. The Bombers showed great determination and skill playing against Canada's best Minor Novice "AAA" teams and USA's older Mite AA teams. They were Semi-finalist in the 42nd Annual Preston International "AAA" Invitational, Mite AA Champions in the Flint Christmas Classic and Mite AA Runner ups in the 17th Annual EMHA Mite Tournament.
2001: 1992 Flint Icelanders (9 year olds)
The 2001 season would mark three big changes, 1; The long time famous and popular "Bomber" logo was retired to the hanger. 2; it was the first time that the team would be rostered as a "AAA" team playing in the Squirt Minor division. 3; it would be the first time the 1992's would be without the services of coaches Brad Van Norman and Rob Wishart as they headed to college. The tryouts were very demanding and exhausting with 34 players competing for a spot on the team. After a grueling 5 days sixteen players were selected from a very talented, awesome group of boys. Returning from the previous year and selected to the defense were Dalton Bates (North Branch), Carter Foguth (Fenton), Dane Genord (Grand Blanc)and Alex Jakubic (Linden). Returning to the offense were Ivan Gaydayenko (Flint), Austin Giesey (Traverse City), Andrew Lay (Swartz Creek), Zach Makimaa (Swartz Creek), Vaughn Mortimer (Davison), William Peltier (Fenton) and Spencer Spurlin (Holly). Back again at the netminder position was Spencer Hill (Columbiaville). There were four new additions to the team, in the net Ryan Thomas (Linden), at the foward positions, Brendan McLeskey (Whitmore Lake) and Garrett Hudson (Linden) and on the "Blueline" Dalton Hammond (Flushing). Brad and Rob would be sorely missed but newcomer Ken Micketti Jr. stepped in to fill the void, joining assistant coaches Ken Micketti, Adam Keasler and John Wishart. This would be the toughest season of all, a grueling 66 Game schedule covering Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Western Ontario. They would play against some of the best Squirt Minor AAA teams in the midwest. They won the Bronze at the 32nd Annual Wayne Gretzky Novice AAA Championship defeating the Providence Friars 5-2. A heartbreaking loss to Brantford 99er's in the last 2 minutes of the semi-finals is all that kept the Icelanders from the Championship game for the Gold. Their biggest accomplishment of the season however; came on March 24, 2002 when they won the "Bob Perani Award" for academics. The award which is named after Bob Perani is presented annually to the team with the highest percentage of players maintaining a 3.0 grade point average or above. The 1992 team placed 14 boys in that category including four who had a 3.5 or above and 4 more with perfect 4.0 GPA's. Not an easy task when traveling all over the US and Canada. Congratulations BOYS!!!!
March 2002: The Finale
They say that all good things must come to and end. I don't know if that is true, but I guess it probably is. It has been a great 5 years and the time has flown by. It is hard to believe that the boys are already turning 10 years old. It seems like yesterday that we were all sitting in the locker room getting ready to hit the small ice for the first time. Well anyway, the time has come for me to turn these boys loose and let them move on to new coaches, new teams and new teammates. Their accomplishments have been remarkable and their skills are nothing short of awesome. I believe that what we set out to do in 1997 has been accomplished. Over the 5-year period, thirty-nine (39) boys played for this team. Nine (9) of the 39 played all five years and nineteen (19) moved on to play Tier 1 AAA hockey. No Flint team has ever placed that many players into Tier 1 hockey to this date. The 1992 Flint Icelanders can certainly be listed among the most talented '92 players in Michigan and beyond. But more importantly, they had fun, they made a lot of friends and traveled too many places (they have seen more cities in five years than I had by the time I was thirty). I will miss them dearly. I have had alot of fun and in the process made many good friends. Best of luck to all of the 1992 Flint Icelanders and continue to have fun wherever you play in the future.
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walking on sunshine
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