Wheatland expected to have contending teams

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Wheatland Athletic Association has seen many unfamiliar faces come into camp for all three levels this season, but from a coaching perspective they are all expected to get stronger as the season goes along and hope to have a deep run in the playoffs.
Second-year bantam bench boss Cody Brown will be looking for a lot of hard work game in and game out, and said he is fairly confident in the group he has assembled for the season.
“We’re looking for guys to show up to the rink and work hard every time they hit the ice,” said Brown. “We’re fairly confident in the group we got. We’ve got everybody on board with the hard work thing.”
Brown thinks the game plan will be altered this year because of the young line up and all the new faces that made the team. The goal is to get everyone on the same page early.
“It’s a totally different group of guys we got this year,” said Brown. “We got to adjust to that and it’s going to be a totally different dynamic … you just got to see what you’ve got early in the year and work with it and see what you can do.”
He is hoping that players will offer a variety of skill sets on the ice and not become just a one-dimensional player.
“You’re obviously looking for dynamic guys,” said Brown. “Just guys that are willing to listen, receptive guys. You tell them something, we’re looking for players taking that advice and trying it out there.”
He added the team is icing a fairly deep roster and it should be a good year all around.
“Ideally you want in the end is being able to run all four lines,” he said. “I think we got the group of guys to do it. It’s just a matter of guys stepping up and making that possible for us for sure.”
The Wheatland Warriors will open up in Medicine Hat on Sept. 25 before their home opener on Sept. 26 vs. the Bow Valley Timberwolves (4:45 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre.
Wheatland Chiefs head coach Shadoe Stoodley is thrilled at the enthusiasm that the young guys are showing early on, in trying to earn a spot on the midget team.
“So far we’ve got a lot of young guys that look pretty good from the M15’s last year,” said Stoodley. “That’ll help going on a championship run, I think they know what it takes to win. Our defense, I think, is the biggest weakness right now,”
Stoodley added that the young players’ skillsets will help the team’s success over the course of the season.
“There’s a few guys that have a scoring touch,” he said. “With some of our returnees, they’re kind of more role players right now, but there’s some scorers there too. But with the young guys coming, they look like a lot of goal scorers in that group.”
The Wheatland Chiefs will begin the season with back-to-back games on Oct. 3 and 4 in Cranbrook, before their home opener on Oct. 10 against the CNHA Blazers (4:45 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre.
The Wheatland Braves are seeing a lot of returning players from last season’s peewee team and new coach Carl Knudsen hopes they will take on more of a leadership role, with a lot of new faces coming into the mix.
“We have seven returning players from last year but we also have a healthy mix of first years,” said Knudsen. “We’re happy to have them. Both our goaltenders are first years, they should be solid there. We got pretty good group of returning players, I’m hoping they’ll do their best to show the younger first years the path out there.”
Knudsen wants to ease the players into game day form, by coaching the basics of the game such as puck and skating skills, which he hopes will help in getting the players on the same page early on.
“We’re just going to keep working on skills,” said Knudsen. “Especially at the start of the season, just to get everyone moving and up to speed and eventually start working as a team. It’s a long summer sometimes and these kids haven’t been on the ice a whole lot yet.”
The staff will expect the players to work hard every night, but will not make the players intimidated right off the bat and punish them.
“At this age you can’t punish kids,” said Knudsen. “You can’t hold it against someone for a mental error, but as long as they’re working hard for me and the coaching staff, we’ll do well, and in return their development should go well.”
The Braves play their home opener on Sept. 25 against Taber at the Strathmore Family Centre.