New midget minor hockey team laces up

Fifteen-year-old hockey players will find a home this fall as a new regional team is lacing up to fill a void left now that Red Deer Minor Hockey Association has merged its two AAA minor midget teams.

The Centre West Midget 15 AA Panthers is a joint regional team being hosted by the Sylvan Lake, Lacombe and Olds minor hockey associations. While the project has been spearheaded by Sylvan Lake, which has year-round administration and an arena with permanent ice, the team will be run by representatives from the three host associations.

"We're excited to provide an opportunity for our 15-year-old players to play at an elite level and offer an alternative where Red Deer opportunities kinda vanished on us," said Mike Pieper, president of the Olds Minor Hockey Association, and the Olds representative for the new team.

"We definitely never intended on seeing a need for this team," said Blair Mack, past president of Sylvan Lake minor hockey, and the Panthers' Sylvan Lake representative, "but now that we are set up, it's just going to be a really cool thing for kids in the community."

Previously, Red Deer had two minor midget AAA teams, specifically for 15-year-old players. Traditionally, younger players have trouble making the cut for a full midget team – the age category for 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds – because they are smaller and less developed.

"You're talking about mental maturity, you're talking about physical maturity, you're talking about just not being big enough or strong enough to compete, no matter how skilled they are," said Mack.

For the last two years, he said, the Red Deer minor midget teams – which play in the Alberta Minor Midget Hockey League – haven't been overly competitive, and it was decided this year to merge the two.

But that left half of the spots available for minor midget players to fill, many of whom come from the surrounding areas to play higher calibre hockey. This means the players who don't make the cut for the minor Midget AAA team would head back to smaller towns, and try out for full Midget AA teams. But, Mack says, most 15-year-olds won't make that cut either. So they end up stepping back yet another level, playing for their home associations' Midget A teams.

To fill that gap, the Red Deer hockey association decided to start a minor Midget AA team, entering the only available league in the province, the Rural & Edmonton Midget 15AA Hockey League (REMHL). However eligibility was restricted to Red Deer city limits, leaving surrounding area players still stuck.

"Our concern was that (players) were going to go back to their home associations, smaller communities, and play … at a much lower level than what they should be playing," said Mack. "Not as good coaching, not as good competition, so overall it would hurt our development, and then the Red Deer AAA's program development down the road."

In response to Red Deer's move to field a minor Midget AA team, came the suggestion that Sylvan Lake put together a team of their own, but the association doesn't have enough players to be competitive.

So Mack reached out to the presidents of the Lacombe and Olds hockey associations, which also host full Midget AA teams for their region, and both were interested in a joint effort.

After getting approval from both the REMHL and Hockey Alberta, the Panthers were born.

"Now there is a place for them to go," said Mack. "For the high end hockey players in Central Alberta, when we had two AAA teams in Red Deer, there were enough spots. And half of those spots got taken away. So this fills that gap."

Mack said the intention is to partner with other communities and provide more development opportunities for talented Central Alberta hockey players.

"We're not creating this program to take away from our surrounding smaller rural associations," he said, giving the example that if one player from a small town joining the Panthers meant the community could not field its own Midget A team, he would encourage that association not to release the player.

Open tryouts will be held in September, and Mack said there will be no regional thresholds, with outside evaluators coming in to rank the talent.

"The best players at the best positions, as chosen by the evaluators and the final picks by the coaches," he said. "That's who will make this team."

The season begins early October, with the three associations hosting five or six home games, and the remainder being played in Innisfail or Bentley.

Lane Moore, who is the principal in Bentley and runs the school's hockey academy, has been named as head coach for the inaugural season, but Mack expects a full search next year, and hopes that the coaching staff will come from different areas.

"I think this only works if it's truly regional," he said, "and one association doesn't dominate it."

"We've worked hard to come up with a plan for this," said Mack. "It truly is a joint effort, a collaboration."

HOST ASSOCIATIONS
Lacombe, Olds, Sylvan Lake

GAME ARENAS
Lacombe, Olds, Sylvan Lake, Innisfail, Bentley

PRACTICE ARENAS
Bentley, Bowden, Innisfail, Lacombe, Olds

ELIGIBLE ASSOCIATIONS
Lacombe, Alix, Big Valley, Blackfalds, Clive, Delburne, Endmoor, Ponoka, Stettler, Olds, Bowden, Carstairs, Didsbury, Innisfail, Kneehill, Sundre, Sylvan Lake, Bentley, Caroline, Eckville, Rimbey, Rocky Mountain House, Spruce View