{"id":24672,"date":"2019-09-12T17:14:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T21:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24672"},"modified":"2019-09-20T17:47:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T21:47:05","slug":"junior-a-tigers-hoping-for-bounce-back-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/junior-a-tigers-hoping-for-bounce-back-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior A Tigers hoping for bounce back season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Junior A Tigers are hoping an influx\nof local talent can help put the memories of a season lost in the rearview\nmirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owner Jim Thomson and his Tigers staff,\nas well as Highland representatives and Mayor Tom Mrakas, officially unveiled\nthis year\u2019s roster of players on Friday at an event held at Highland Automotive\nProfessionals, showcasing faces both new and old that the fan base will see\nthis year at the Aurora Community Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said this to the Mayor, in five years\nthat we\u2019ve owned the team, there\u2019s no doubt this is the best cultured group\nthat we\u2019ve got,\u201d said Thomson. \u201cThat\u2019s nothing against the other teams, that\u2019s\njust who we picked this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only five returnees will take to the ice\nfor the Tigers this season, including keeper Christian Filippetti, who\nbackstopped the Tigers through 19 games as only a seventeen-year old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trevor Grasby and Cael Cavallin return\nto play a veteran role on the blue line, while Payton Schaly and Mauro Biasutti\nwill patrol the front lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited to get it going,\u201d\nsaid General Manager and Head Coach Rob DeFulviis, who was named into the roles\nin March after working behind the bench as co-coach last season. \u201cIt\u2019s been a\nlong, long summer of making phone calls and making trades, getting guys to\ncommit here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur whole process of what we thought\nwould be best for us is having the culture and the character that we brought\nin. From the veterans coming back, to the younger guys that have come in right\naway and stepped in and will be key pieces to our team\u2026the older guys that have\nmade everyone feel welcome right from day one of camp.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeFulviis was tasked with choosing this\nyear\u2019s carousel of captains, opting to go with Grasby, right winger Eric\nConley, and centreman Jalen Balbosa as this year\u2019s assistants. Balbosa made the\nmove south on Yonge Street from the Newmarket Hurricanes, who debut this year\nas the Milton Menace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newcomer Jonas Leas was handed the\ncaptain\u2019s role, joining the Tigers from the NOJHL\u2019s Cochrane Crunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of (them),\u201d said DeFulviis.\n\u201cI\u2019m really excited to have those guys lead the team. The leadership group we\nhave is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeFulviis is hoping to lead the Tigers\nout of a disastrous second half to last year\u2019s season, one that saw the club\nsquander a double0digit lead in the OJHL\u2019s North division, eventually falling\nto third place, eleven back of the division-winning Markham Royals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Newmarket Hurricanes made easy work\nof the Tigers in the first round of the postseason, needing just five games to\nmove on before falling in the next round and skipping town just days later.\nThomson and his group are hoping to entice the small, yet loyal fan base of the\nHurricanes to cross enemy lines and become members of the Jungle, starting with\na number of incentives for Thursday\u2019s home opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ticket prices this season have been cut\nfrom a $14 price tag to just $10, while those who show their Magna Hoedown\nticket at the home opener against the Brampton Admirals will get in for just\n$5. The first 500 fans will also receive a Tigers tee shirt, while Storage Wars\nCanada\u2019s Ursula Stolf will be signing autographs between periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next chance to see the new-look\nTigers on home ice will come Friday, September 20 against the Stouffville\nSpirit, with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Junior A Tigers are hoping an influx of local talent can help put the memories of a season lost in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-12-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6pW","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 04:37:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}