Rushing to Russia

By Tim Harwood

Participating in the 2012 Junior Club World Cup is a tremendous thrill for the Waterloo Black Hawks organization and should be an experience everyone making the trip remembers forever.  Before the team departs, we’re learning how short two months really are.

On June 11th,the Hawks made the announcement that they would play in the event.  The flight from Chicago departs on August 12^th.  Almost half of the time in between has gone by, and it has been a busy stretch.  The coaching staff, especially assistant Mike Falk, has been scrambling to take care of the “nuts and bolts” aspects which will make travel possible.  Getting passports and visas was, and is, essential.  Determining where the team will fly from, connect in Europe for the second leg to Moscow, and even what the players will eat at the stopover airport, has needed to be analyzed for efficiency.  Every other road trip this team has made in recent memory – even to meet various USHL expansion teams over the years – has included a lot of familiar elements.  This one’s a little different, unless they’ve opened a Fazoli’s next to the Kremlin.

Trainer Todd Klein has been receiving huge shipments of equipment months before it would typically begin arriving.  Shipping all that gear to Moscow, then Omsk, is a huge project by itself.  The baggage fees for the luggage carrying the clothes 25 players will wear during a 16-day journey will cost a small fortune even before considering the gloves, helmets, and pads that they will need to play at least four (hopefully six) games.  Then there are the special jerseys that the team will wear.  Right now, they’re top secret, but look for the design to be revealed before long.

To have the team in top condition for the event, plans are also coming together for a camp at Young Arena later this month.  With significant turnover from the roster which helped the Hawks reach the Clark Cup Finals in May, rookies and veterans will have to figure out what their teammates are capable of very quickly in order to be in sync when the first puck drops on August 19^th.  Fortunately, the experienced players who return offer a high degree of skill and professionalism, which should bring the whole team up to speed quickly.  More details on the camp and opportunities to meet the team will be out soon.

While all of that and much more is happening behind the scenes, the Black Hawks have created this blog to keep everyone updated on the trip.  There has been a tremendous outpouring of interest about this tournament.  We’ve enlisted several veteran players (Vinnie Hinostroza, Matias Cleland, and Ryan Papa) to tell you their stories before and after our flight leaves the runway.  We also welcome your comments.

Thanks to Waterloo fans everywhere, our team will have the opportunity to represent the Cedar Valley and the United States.  With this forum, we look forward to bringing you all the details as the Black Hawks take on the world.