Four teens from Mountain View County played recently at the Alberta Cup provincial hockey championships where their team won gold.
The players come from four different communities in the county: Colton "Cub" Koran is from Carstairs, Rhett Parsons from Cremona, Charlie Wright from Olds and Tristan Baumung from Sundre.
The Alberta Cup took place April 25-29 in Spruce Grove and featured 160 of the top bantam (players born in 2003) players in Alberta spread out onto eight teams.
The four Mountain View players played on the Central Alberta team, which was coached by Tyrel Spitzer of Edmonton.
All four players attended the Central team tryout camp on March 23-25 and were selected from approximately 100 players for the 20-player roster.
"We heard about the tryouts through email and we all signed up," said Baumung, a defenceman who played for the Red Deer Bantam AAA Rebels last year. "It was a three-day weekend with one skill section, three games, and a chance to prove yourself. The coaches then picked the team."
Koran, a forward for the Airdrie Bantam AAA Xtreme last season, said the tryouts were pretty intense.
"People were trying to really prove themselves to make the team," he said.
"I thought the tryouts went well," said Parsons, a defenceman who also played for the Airdrie bantams. "We all showcased our skills well. That's why we got our spots on the team."
The team only had a one-day training camp in Olds to prepare for the Alberta Cup.
"The whole team came down for the day," said Wright, a forward with the Red Deer Bantam AAA Rebels last year. "We had two ice sessions and a whole bunch of team bonding exercises. I thought it went really well. We really bonded. We pretty much knew each other beforehand anyway. So when we went to the tournament we knew each other and were ready to go."
Parsons agreed with his teammate that the team came together very well.
"We came together as a group quickly so that made it easier on the ice," he said. "We had really good chemistry on the ice. That was a big reason why we won the tournament."
Over the four-day Alberta Cup, the team played three round-robin games and two playoff games. In the round-robin Central beat Northwest 6-2, Calgary North 9-2, and lost to Edmonton yellow 8-3. In the semifinal, Central shut out Calgary South 8-0 to advance to the final for a rematch against Edmonton yellow. In the final, Central won 2-0 in another shutout win.
"I thought we really improved a lot," said Baumung. "The communication on the ice got better as the tournament went on and we bonded really well. It seemed like we'd been playing together for the whole winter. It was nice to have teammates like that."
Wright said that the team really played well as a team in a short time.
"Our whole team came together and we all wanted it as much as the player next to us on the bench," he said. "We all did it for them and worked hard for the whole five games."
Wright was selected in the fourth round of the Western Hockey League bantam draft on Thursday by the Saskatoon Blades. Parsons was chosen a round later by the Medicine Hat Tigers.
