St. Michael's Holiday 2011

It's the one very special spiritual day of the year when I take some personal time to reflect and honor the moniker that has been passed down from my forefathers. So, every year on this COHF blog, I dedicate a little something special to highlight a couple of developmental organizations. I hope these young players represent the kind of sportsmanship and class that the team name invokes.

First up is the Catholic Liberal Arts university near Burlington, Vermont named Saint Michael's College. It's got a Men's and Women's hockey team currently situated in the Northeast-10 Conference. You can follow them on their athletic dept. twitter and the athletic dept. facebook page.

The Men's Purple Knight's team finished last season with an overall record of 11-15-1 and showing some signs of improvement.The real notable part of last season was their efforts to "Think Pink" for cancer awareness last February 4th. In a double header event, the mens and womens teams played host at the Cairns Arena while fans were encourage to attend the "pink zone". But looking ahead to this season, they are also hosting a Holiday Classic event during the last days in December. Even though the program struggles, they did post a great 5-0 record in conference match-ups.

The womens team finished a little low as well at 6-19-2, but still managed to put together an impressive season that showed more victories than the one before that. Some of the stand-out headlines from last season has then-junior forward Madelena Santore score a hat trick in the last game of the season. Congratulations to her. They also will host a Holiday Classic tournament the last few days of 2011.

The next team that is kept in mind today is the OHL's Mississauga St. Michael's Majors. Formerly of the St. Michael's College in Toronto. They are a major junior level team owned by Eugene Melnyk and play in the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

They are coming off a successful Memorial Cup host year having hosted and participated in the yearly tournament. They came up short, losing to the Q's St. John's SeaDogs in the final game, but the experience of the event earned them national recognition. Many of the team's players are back and

The St. Michael's Majors also got to wear a new classic styled jersey uniform at the Memorial Cup last season. Fans of the team are sure to track them down to pay big bucks for the game used ones. But for the 2011-12 season, they've designed a new sweater for the third jersey. I like them both, but it's obvious which pro team they want to look exactly like.

They also to honor a few more legendary players by retiring numbers of Dick Duff (12), Ted Lindsay (5), and Red Kelly (3) at the Memorial Cup Weekend back in May of 2011. I'm hoping that since there have been a number of legendary players to come out of the school, they will hang a few more alums in the Hershey Centre rafters.

The Majors will be facing their OHL rival IceDogs on Sept. 29th in the Jack Gatecliff Arena.