This past weekend, a Novice Revelstoke Minor Hockey Spring Team, comprised of twelve skaters born in 2010 headed to Kamloops to skate in spring league tournament. Their hard work meant they took home the bronze.
Team manager Clarke Traverse notes the growth of minor hockey in Revelstoke and the large number of Novice skaters this past season opened the opportunity to create a spring team based out of Revelstoke. “It may be the first time that minor hockey has been in a position to do this,” says Clark.
For the past month, the team has been practicing three times a week. The Kamloops tournament, where they team played five games over two days, was the culmination of the summer season.
The teams they played against are all ‘select teams.’
“Basically, selected teams means kids are trying out to be a part of the team,” says Clark. Each of the three other teams hailed from much bigger communities, including two teams from Kamloops and a team from Kelowna.
“We decided to organize a team for this tournament to give the kids an opportunity to develop their skills as the games are at a higher level of hockey that they had been playing at,” explains Clark. “It also allowed the kids to play some games at full ice and under standard rules of hockey. To date, this age group has been playing all their games on reduced ice to help with their development.”
“Every games was very competitive and the kids were very competitive against these select teams,” says Clark. “The team ended up winning the bronze medal in a very competitive final game that they won 8-5.”
For Head Coach Dave Pehowich, the amount the kids improved in a short space of time showcased the players passion and excitment about the sport.
“I am pretty proud of the kids on how hard they worked for the last 4 weeks,” says Pehowich. “Clark spent a lot of time this winter working on their skating and skills with small area drills. We had to teach the kids about playing full ice, new rules such as off-sides and icing, and how to change on the fly. We went with kids who had the interest to keep playing after the minor hockey season so were limited to just two lines verses three lines, like the other teams.”
“The kids improved each game as the tournament went on and finished with a very exciting game against the Kamloops Junior Blazers,” he says.
Special thanks to Coaches Lauren Barras, Mike McStay, and Matt Cameron and on ice helpers Jalen Pehowich, Eldyn Pauls, Cameron Norrie for their commitment. Special thanks to the Revelstoke Grizzlies Jr. B Team for their on-ice help.
*All photographs by Natalie Pehowich
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