'Big accomplishment': Two top-level minor hockey teams bring coveted 'Red Hats' back to Barrie

Two local 'AAA' teams have brought the Stanley Cup of minor hockey back to Barrie.

Both the Barrie U10 'AAA' Barrie Colts and the U12 'AAA' Barrie Colts teams skated and scored their way to victory earlier this spring, winning the coveted “Red Hats” — and the title of Ontario Minor Hockey Association champions for the 2021-22 season, a pretty sweet feat considering the many bumps in the road it took to get there, acknowledged Barrie 'AAA' chair Greg Hotham.

On March 27, the U10 'AAA' Barrie Colts beat out the Oakville Rangers, 6-3, during the championship tournament — ending their season with a total of 40 wins and five losses.

On April 3 , the U102 'AAA' Barrie Colts won 5-4 in double overtime against the Niagara North Stars during the championship tournament in Oakville, with Jack Lee scoring the winning goals in both the semifinal and final.

“For two teams in one association to win an Ontario championship is a big accomplishment, especially with all of the challenges and interruptions that COVID has caused," Hotham said. "It’s been a trying couple years, but you’ve got to give the kids credit. They persevered through everything and worked extremely hard and got rewarded for their efforts." 

Hotham said credit also needs to go to the coaches for guiding them successfully through a pretty unique season.

“From the association side, we had five teams out of eight of our teams in the OMHA championships — and (to have) two (teams) win…  that is a pretty big accomplishment for the association," he said. 

Blair Sherrit, who is the head coach of the U10 'AAA' Barrie Colts team, told BarrieToday that he and the rest of the coaching staff recognized pretty quickly they had a pretty talented group of athletes on their hands this season.

“It was fun to kick off the year and once we picked our team we… started having success right away,” he said.

At one of the first team meetings they set a goal: Not to win championships, but rather to be the most improved team in the league.

“Even though they were a step ahead of most of the teams in our league, the goal was to be the most improved. We figured if we did that then all the other stuff would fall into place," Sherrit said. 

Watching his son and his teammates grow over the course of the season has definitely been a huge source of pride, he added.

“If you like doing this, inevitably you take all of these kids under your wing. You want the best for them and you want them to have success. You have 17 kids on your team and we genuinely get to know them… and these moments with the kids are really special,” Sherrit said. “I was nervous at the tournament at our last game. Not because I was worried we were going to lose, but because I wanted it so bad for them. I knew how hard they’d worked — even at nine years old — so to have them win everything at the end of the year was (amazing).”

One of the things that Sherrit believes set his team a bit above the rest was their natural work ethic, which he said was “at a 10” from the first day they hit the ice together.

“They would do whatever they could possibly do to make their team better. It’s kind of weird at such a young age to be that selfless, but they really wanted to win for each other and they worked hard for each other,” he said. “We have a saying: ‘Don’t wish for it, work for it’. Everybody wants to win the championship or the red hat and we tell them that you can’t wish for it. You have to put in the work for it.”

Andrea Rinaldi, who coached the U12 'AAA' team to their win this season, told BarrieToday the biggest thing for his team — and every team that played this year — was ultimately persevering despite the unknown.

“You didn’t know if you were going to finish your season. Knowing the season could end early, because it had done that a few years ago, the kids were always working toward achieving a goal we might not be able to accomplish,” Rinaldi said. “At the end of the day, we were able to get to our tournament… and it was the first time in a couple of years. We finished first in our league standings and that set us up to be in a good position for the playoffs.”

Sherrit and Rinaldi say they will both be back behind the bench in the fall, and hope they can “capture lightning in a bottle” and do it all again next season.