#HockeyStories – The Right to a Dream
Posted: 03/09/2023 Filed under: #HockeyStories, NIHL | Tags: #HockeyStories, guildford phoenix, NIHL Leave a comment
The Belfast Giants and the Solway Sharks were the last teams to do a domestic grand slam in Britain but who was the last one before that? You need to drop down a couple of tiers but in 2022, the Guildford Phoenix won the lot. The who?
When people think of hockey in Guildford, they usually go in one of three directions; the Flames, the Lightning (the senior women’s side) or the juniors but in recent times, the Phoenix have been very successful in NIHL South 2, winning the last title pre-COVID as well as their sweep in 2022. Founded in 2017, the club’s website states that “nearly all of our players have been apart (sic) of the Guildford Junior Club at some point during their junior hockey careers with most going on to play senior hockey for other teams, but now returning to play for Guildford once again.” The idea is to give current and ex Guildford juniors a way to play in the town and they sit within the junior club structure.
They did attract some attention back in the 19/20 season when well known footballer Petr Cech, former Arsenal, Chelsea and Czechia keeper, suddenly appeared. Cech, now with the Oxford City Stars, was an ice hockey goalie in his youth but was pushed towards football by his parents as it was cheaper. The novelty value of a former Champions League winner putting on knife shoes to play in goal naturally caught a lot of media attention and once the news cycle had had its fun, everyone moved on, including Cech himself after the grand slam.
A bit of personal backstory. Growing up in Epsom, right on the border of Surrey and South West London, the city is one way on the train and the other way leads to Guildford. Everyone where I lived knew about the rink and that rink has always been about the Flames. When I got into ice hockey and started going to Basingstoke, it was about the Flames but the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realised that the Flames is the very small top of a pyramid. There’s a lot of people involved in Guildford below that level and the reputation, whether you think it deserved or not, is that many Guildford youngsters do not get that chance to be a Guildford Flames player even though it is or was the goal. The Phoenix now exist to develop those former juniors is what they say themselves, so who are they?
Staring back at me from the video call, Josh Sherrington looks excited. He confesses to the fact that he loves chatting about hockey.
Josh and I had been chatting on and off since the end of the 2022/23 season which ended in some controversy. With some games unfulfilled in the schedule heading towards the designated end of the season, according to the rules those games had to be awarded as wins or draws depending on the circumstance by the league committee. Bristol Pitbulls 2’s game with Peterborough Phantoms 2 was awarded to the West Country side which handed them the league title. Guildford, who had beaten Bristol home and away but had lost in Peterborough to the Phantoms had lost their title on what appeared from the outside to be a technicality by a single point. They went into the playoffs, handily won their quarter final then lost at finals weekend to hosts, Haringey.
Sherrington has no qualms about his assessment. “There’s no other way to say it, we bottled it.”
This isn’t the first time that Josh has expressed this sentiment to me but it still takes me a minute to absorb it. You could forgive Sherrington, the team’s top scorer of goals, assists and points last season, from still stewing a bit about why he doesn’t have another league winners medal.
Sherrington grew up in Farnborough in Hampshire which sits close to both Guildford and Bracknell. Living on the side of town closer to the Spectrum, he started his junior career there before joining the Bracknell system (“I was driftwood, it was right to move”). Sherrington played juniors with players like Sam Duggan, Sean Norris and Josh Tetlow, making his senior debut in 2016 with the Bracknell Hornets before vanishing from the ice.
“I finished college, uni wasn’t for me and I was better at roller hockey than I was at ice. I’d played for the national team a bunch and had made some contacts. I got the chance to go and play roller hockey in Southern California. I was taken in by a family and got to play roller hockey for two years.”
Sherrington credits his time there with large amounts of personal development. The roller hockey community there was so welcoming. I was just trying to learn and grow as a person. The plan was to come back and run a roller hockey facility, COVID put a stop to it. Reflecting on it, it wasn’t the right time to do it”
Upon his return from the states in 2019, Josh threw himself back into the things he knew around him both on wheels and skates. He initially reached out to Andy Hemmings, founder and then coach of the Phoenix. Having been told to get a year of ice under his belt of after a few years away, he headed to what was then the third team in Bracknell, the Wasps.
“Getting back on the ice was tough. Being on roller blades for two straight years and then in a competitive game of ice hockey was so hard. I couldn’t just push and roll”
It did however come together. After the pandemic, and being good friends with then Phoenix forward Jared Lane, Josh had another call with Andy Hemmings who decided he’d take a chance on a guy who had played 12 games on the ice since 2016. He ended up scoring 18 goals in 21 games in his first season back. He credits it to being thrown in at the deep in. “This was the first time in senior hockey where I was put into scenarios where I was put out of my comfort zone, that I wasn’t ready for but was trusted. Roller hockey as always been a natural thing for me. The stereotype is that roller guys have good hands, can’t skate but the vision is there. I was pushed out of my comfort zone by Andy (Hemmings) and Pottsy (current Phoenix head coach, Stuart Potts) and I swam.”
With the new season looming on the horizon, the roster of the Phoenix is taking shape. It’s a big roster but it’s not a young one. For a club that’s there to give former Guildford juniors a place to play, there’s not many recent juniors and I confess to Josh that I’m wondering where the club goes with its recruitment as its core ages.
“There was that chunk of players of that age 16s and 18s, who because of COVID and other reasons either went to Europe, other teams or packed it in and stopped playing. There’s a two year span of juniors who go sliced away that realistically we’d have likely pulled up. We’ve had guys come through and done a job and there’s a few in the pipeline. I’m not involved in those decisions of what our direction is. What we have at the moment though is a bunch of guys who are committed to it. That’s where we stand. What happens behind the scenes isn’t something we know but the ones who have come through have done well.”
So we return to what was said at the start of the chat. Why did the Phoenix end the season empty handed? Why did they bottle it?
“Everyone was pissed off. I try to remove the emotion from it and see how the decision come to be made and, reflecting on it, there’s nobody to blame but ourselves as we put ourselves in that position. We dropped points in Chelmsford, we dropped points against Peterborough, in other places we shouldn’t have but we won a double header with Haringey and beat Bristol home and away.
They had that long to sort the game (between Bristol and Peterborough) out, stuff was done behind the scenes to make it happen but we went there and dropped points, they were given a win. Wouldn’t the fairest thing have been to award a draw so we’re level and it’s then sorted by head to head? The fact they won on a technicality is brutal but we played in the league, we had the opportunity to wrap it up but didn’t.
Playoffs? Well, Invicta turned up didn’t they, in more ways than one with the matching suits and the like. They played the games of their lives and deservedly won.”
Those guys who are there have obviously done great things. Even with not retaining their titles, a second place finish and making the playoff weekend isn’t a terrible season but they’re not interested in falling short again.
“We need to bare down and take every opportunity that comes. We need to be on the ball every game. You don’t win a league when you’re not. You need the cogs turning every game. When we won the lot, that happened and there were moments last season where it didn’t. We have the group to do it, a lot of the lads won the grand slam. The way we apply ourselves hasn’t changed. We hold each other and ourselves accountable but we just need it to click week in, week out.”
If it clicks then they’ll do well and the Phoenix will be back at the top of South 2 mountain and yet never be number one in their own building. It seems cruel to ask but I feel I have to. Josh Sherrington is the team’s top scorer, a Guildford junior, the dream will have been the Flames but it’ll likely never come to pass. How does that sit with him?
“The point I’m at now, I’ll never play for the Flames. I’m not at that point of my career where I’m pushing to improve in that way. When any kid starts, they have the right to have a goal, to have that dream. At the end of the day, there is an opportunity to play for the Flames. How exclusive or accessible that is comes down to two parties; the individual playing and the coach with what they want. If that’s your goal, that’s what it’ll be. I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a barrier. There’s always a way to get there. If the player is performing and the coach wants them, they’ll get there. What’s to say that you can’t? A door might open but sometimes you have to kick the door further open than someone might be prepared to open it for you.”
So given that door may not be fully closed but almost shut, why should he or they or anyone be fussed about what the Phoenix do? Or any division 2 side for that matter?
“It’s easy for me to say because I see a lot of what happens behind the scenes. People should care about the Phoenix because of the level of professionalism and the amount that goes into it. People should care about division 2 because there’s people coming through that will play for their team one day and I know that because I see them.”
Ultimately Josh might be one of them. If he repeats his scoring feats of 22/23 then he will have division 1 clubs after him. He admitted during our chat that he’d spoken to a couple of coaches and what many might see as him wanting to be a big fish in a small pond was him repaying the faith the club had in him and the chance to play alongside his brother who returns to the ice this season.
I’m left rattling those words around in my head about everyone having the right to have that dream or goal. I’m left wondering if for many, that their dream of being a Guildford Flames star is beyond them or not and whether they need to settle to be a Guildford Phoenix. However maybe Josh’s words say it better than mine. A dream today doesn’t have to be a dream forever. You can want to be a Guildford Phoenix at 17 or 18 and a Flame at 21. One might be harder to achieve than the other but holding those as dreams isn’t a bad thing. That player is allowed to want that. That is their right, and if they find a way to do it, then who am I to deny them the right to kick down that door?
Banners On The Wall 