Gregory takes the reins for new WAA Chiefs SCAHL season

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

For the third time in as many years, the Wheatland Athletic Association (WAA) midget Chiefs opened training camp with a new bench boss.
The new man in charge has been around for each of those two previous campaigns, but now gets his crack at steering the ship.
“It’ll be really exciting to get this going and a pretty fun adventure,” said Chiefs Head Coach Matt Gregory.
Gregory served as an assistant with Matt Gass two years ago when the Chiefs captured the first provincial title in franchise history underneath Evan Barlow. Last year, Gass slid into Barlow’s role and the Chiefs were one of the top teams in the South Central Alberta Hockey League (SCAHL).
Gregory has decided to bring Coltin Grant and Mark Laycock on as assistants this year.
Coltin Grant is the brother of former CFR Chemicals Bisons assistant coach Paden Grant. Paden also helped out the Chiefs on a part-time basis last season.
The Standard native Coltin played five seasons for the University of Calgary Dinos in the formerly known Canadian Interuniversity Sport league. He also remained with the Dinos as an assistant coach for one season after his playing career finished.
The new coaching staff is eager to work with the players this year, but a better idea of what the time might look like will have to wait until other camps sort themselves out.
“It looks like we are going to have some strong returning guys from last year, but we still have to wait on a couple M15 camps and what the Okotoks triple-A team does with their camp,” said Gregory. “Hopefully we get some vets matched up with some new faces this year.”
The Chiefs have been put through conditioning testing and began training camp practices this week. The main event of their pre-season takes place Sept. 17 (6 p.m.) at the Standard Arena for the annual intrasquad Red and White game.
“It’s going to be nice returning to Standard as a coach, seeing as it’s my home barn,” said Gregory, who played three years in the WAA program at the bantam and midget levels.
With the later start than the rest of the WAA programs, the Chiefs have yet to put their team through a test run in pre-season games.
The peewee Braves whittled their way down to their regular season roster following a pre-season tournament last weekend in Okotoks.
The Braves took the boots to their SCAHL opponents and went 3-0-1 in the opening tourney at Murray Arena.
The Braves tied the hometown Okotoks Oilers 3-3 Sept. 7. On Sept. 8, they knocked off the other Okotoks squad 6-4 before downing the Foothills Bisons 11-1. The Braves then wrapped up the weekend with a 12-0 thumping of the Chestermere Lakers.
Following the weekend’s success, the Braves released their final roster.
“It’s difficult to make accurate evaluations on players after a weekend like that. Some of the competition wasn’t as strong as what we typically see in our league, but that’s the way it goes,” said Braves Head Coach Keith Klemmensen.
Connor White returns between the pipes after going 9-8-1 with a .860 save percentage last year. He is joined by newcomer Houston Langen.
Luke Eitzen and Adam Lee are the two carryover players on the back end. Last year, Lee netted one goal and six points in 37 games, while Eitzen registered three assists in 37 games.
Up front, the Braves return two of their top four scorers from last season in Luc Trevors and Conner Radke. Radke powered the Braves with 22 goals and 17 assists in 37 games, while Trevors scored 11 goals and 22 assists in 37 games.
“I think we have a little more depth up front than last year and our defence is just as good or slightly better than last year’s, too,” said Klemmensen. “I really liked the battle we had in net. We like our two goalies we have, but there were three others that really pushed for spots on this team. It’s always good to have battles like that in camp.”
The bantam Warriors are nearing completion for their regular season roster.
They picked up a 7-3 victory over the Foothills Bisons Sept. 8 at the Standard Arena.
Cole Grant and Caeden Lomena each sniped a pair, as Cam Blackhorse, Andrew Sikora and Kyle Provencher added singles.
First-year bantam netminder Matthew Dovichak started between the pipes and made 11 saves in his half game of duty. Taking over the rest of the way was Graden Sorenson, who made seven stops.
The Warriors will participate in a pre-season tourney this weekend in High River and will hopefully be down to their regular season roster shortly after that.