PRESS RELEASES


Bradford Wraps Up Season
(Bradford, ON; March 15th, 2012)
Sean Werth


The 2011-2012 Bradford Rattlers season has come to a close. The club finished with a 31-6-5 record for a third place regular season finish. After earning a first round bye, the Rattlers defeated the Lefroy Wave in the quarter finals, but ultimately bowed out to the Sturgeon Falls Lumberjacks in the semi-finals. The Rattlers organization considers this season to be another successful season, making tremendous strides both on and off the ice.

The team nearly had to start from scratch after having much of their previous year’s team graduate onto higher levels of hockey. On the ice, the team went through several restructurings to find a good team composition; one that had scoring contributions from all four lines. The Rattlers achieved this after many mid-season shakeups. 

Most importantly, Bradford served as a development tool for the young men who wore the black, green and gold. The young team improved substantially over the course of the year, giving the opportunity for these hockey players to showcase their skills to major junior, college and professional clubs.

Off the ice, Bradford made tremendous improvements to their program. The Bradford WG Leisure Centre served as the home of the Rattlers for the second half of the season. The new arena is one of the nicest Tier II facilities in Ontario, giving the Rattler players all the tools they needed to succeed. Bradford also renewed their affiliation with the World Hockey Centre, and will once again be hosting their training camp out of the training facility. The World Hockey Centre is world renown as one of the best hockey schools available. The numerous contacts with college and professional teams not only give our players contacts to higher level of play, but help to bring talented hockey players to our roster.

Furthermore, the Rattlers affiliated themselves with RHE Management. RHE Management is a player agency, specializing in moving Tier II Junior ‘A’ players to the professional level. The experience brought by these agents brings significant respect to the Rattler’s organization in the hockey world.

In conclusion, the 2011-2012 season was a overwhelming success for the Rattlers organization. Although a Russell Cup championship would have been nice to add to the trophy cupboard, the on and off ice victories more than compensated for the season.

On behalf of the entire Bradford Rattlers organization, we would like to thank the players, fans and sponsors for the great season!