If playing hockey in a league is like holding down a job, then tournaments are like going to school.
In tournaments, where your opponents are often from far flung places like Josephburg and Grande Prairie, wins and losses matter less than lessons learned, and coaches often juggle lineups to give players a chance to gain fresh perspectives on the game. Sometimes there is a test at the end, but tournaments are, like in class, a chance to be taught new lessons, new ideas and be given new opportunities.
Last weekend, the Jasper Atom Bears hosted teams from six communities around Alberta in their annual Hockey in the Rockies tournament.
With 19 kids on the squad, Coaches Steve Malcolm and Jim Koss divided the Bears into two units that spread out to face all of the visiting teams in 12 games over three days. Each Bear, whether on the Red or White team, got plenty of ice, and lots of opportunities to learn.
Take Henri Leclerc, an accomplished skier who is a practice-only player for the Bears. These were his first games this season and you could see the improvement from his first to final game. The same change could be seen in Adrian Hernandez, who just got back from a six-week Mexican sabbatical and hasn’t played much at game speed this season.
Sebastian Golla, the Bears’ playmaker, got to play net for a game and did pretty well, perhaps thanks to his big brother who is a crease crawler for the Bantam team. Jacob Bartziokas, Michael Hayashi, Tanner Carlton and Dexter Fawcett, normally found on defense, all had a chance to play forward often to great effect. The inverse was true for regular forwards Lucas Oeggerli and Donovan Fawcett, who had a few semesters on the blue line.
Baden Koss and Josh Lee both had a crash-course in weights and measures early on Saturday against the Grande Prairie Knights who left everyone with the impression they were a Bantam team whose bus broke down in Jasper and decided to stay for some games.
Freshmen Atoms Dylan Skinner and Janelle Tank learned the spelling of the terms “sweat equity” and “work ethic” as they had the chance to play as number one forwards and earned top honours as the team’s Heart and Hustle and MVP recipients on Friday afternoon’s end-to-end battle against the Hinton Ice Dogs.
Apollo Hardman and Ty Crozier, also first year Atoms, deservedly graduated with similar honours after Saturday evening’s game against the Edson Canadians, with an impressive seven points between them, including three goals.
Liam Crozier and Nash Hilworth earned straight As in geography, learning success can come from standing in front of the opponent’s net. And moving to the head of the class, earning him MVP honours for the tournament’s final game was
Owen Kearnan, who was conspicuous on the defense for being in the right places and doing the right things.
It was a great weekend for the Bears, with only one loss in six games, against two ties and three wins.
Particular thanks to Christine Oeggerli and Michelle Kearnan, team co-managers, who gave a clinic on how to run a weekend tournament together with the many parent volunteers who make such an event possible.
The Bears are on the road again next weekend with games in Whitecourt and Edson.
You can read about those games next week.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
