Alberta Cup: no complaints

Times Reporter   

 

One hundred and sixty bantam hockey stars filled the Family Centre from April 24-27 for the ATB Alberta Cup. In Strathmore’s second year as host, the event could not have gone any smoother.

“There didn’t seem to be any hiccups. You kind of prepare for problems, but there weren’t any. It was just like clockwork. My hat’s off to the committee there, they just did a fantastic job,” said Neil Glionna, director of operations for Team South. “Everyone saw what the town had. I never heard one negative thing – no complaints about hotels or restaurants or the arena. To run a tournament of that magnitude, and not have any complaints, that’s unheard of.”

Tournament co-chair, Blair Wilson, found strong feedback from the players as well.

 “We had lots of players thank us for the event,” he said. “I noticed a lot of them were tweeting last night, things like ‘best five days ever’ and ‘friends for life’. For the players, it was a great experience.”

Roughly 150 scouts attended the event. Last year, 14 Alberta Cup players were drafted in the first round of the WHL draft, and another 26 afterwards. Glionna said his boys on Team South just played their game, and didn’t watch the stands.

“Our kids didn’t seem to be nervous about that. They just went out there and had fun,” he said. “I felt that they played to the best of their ability.” 

Team South had no kids from Strathmore, but had two products of Wheatland AA: defenseman Matthew Quigley and forward Riley Romashenko (who had five points in five games). Both Chestermere boys played for the AAA Rocky Mountain Raiders. The South had one win and four losses; Calgary South defeated Northeast in the final, 5-4.

Glionna mentioned that with three hours of practice time, it’s hard to blend as a team. Only 20 were named to each squad, though the South had 160 kids attend tryouts.

“We had the most kids come to tryout camp,” Glionna said. “It goes in cycles. You’ll get an area, for example, Northeast, this is their third year in a row that they’ve been very strong. The scouts told us going in, that South was a weaker area this year.”