Lay happy playing for hometown team

Courtesy CSHLhockey.com

After the big offensive season Andrew Lay had last season in his senior year at Flint Powers Catholic High School, it was just a matter of time before he was tapped by a team at the next level.

It just so happens that the Flint Jr. Generals, whose home rink is mere minutes from Lay’ s Swartz Creek home, came calling and signed the local talent this past summer.

“It is a lot of fun to play for your hometown team,” said the 18-year-old Lay. “I mean, I live at home and I see people at the rink all the time that I have seen my whole life. It is just a comfortable place to play and makes it a lot easier.”

Flint’s leading scorer to this point of the season, Lay said getting on the score sheet has never been unfamiliar territory to him.

“I would say that every year I try to put up big numbers,” Lay said. “Last year at Flint Powers, I led our team with 74 points in 30 games, so what I am doing now with this season isn’t something new to me. I know I am able to put points up on the board.”

Being a go-to player in the offensive zone isn’t the only part of Lay’ s game. Having a sense of humility, Lay also admitted he does have flaws in his makeup that he’ d like to work on.

“I think the strongest part to my game is what I am able to do in the offensive zone,” said Lay. “I seem to be able to set up plays to my teammates. My weakness to my game I would have to say would be my defense, which I have worked on a lot this year and am trying to get better at.”

With Flint sitting on just four wins heading into this weekend’s CSHL Showcase, playing four games in four days may be a good thing for the Jr. Generals.

“I believe that we have a team that can turn things around with a weekend like we have before us,” Lay said. “I know that it has been tough getting to know all of these new guys for our team and it is difficult to play with new guys and get that chemistry that you need to have. That is going to take us some time to get used to, but I believe that we have a team that is willing to work harder every week and improve our game and get better as a team every week.

“I thought that we would have gotten off to a better start to the season. We looked really good before the season started, but when it came down to the games, we just couldn’t seem to capitalize and get a win. With this whole team being new and with only a couple of veterans returning, it was hard for us to get to know each other and just click. I think that over the last couple of weeks that has gotten better and we are playing better hockey as a team.”

Playing to the old adage that team success breeds individual success, Lay has every ambition to keep playing the next few years.

“My goals for the season are to keep putting up the numbers that I am right now and I would like to see our team move up the standings because I know we are capable of doing that,” said Lay. “It is just taking us some time and the wins will come. I would like to move up and play in the NAHL this season – I think that would be great. Next year, I know that I would like to be playing in the NAHL and I would like to play college hockey anywhere.

“Right now, I really don’ t have a school in mind. I guess that I am still looking.”