“I always had to travel to get that quality of camp, and now I want to bring that quality to Yorkton.”
— Derek Serdachny
Derek Serdachny spent a lot of his childhood playing hockey in Yorkton. From minor hockey all the way up to his years on the Yorkton Terriers, Serdachny said some of his best memories stem from playing at home.
Now, he’s created a hockey training camp to share his knowledge and experience with young players in Yorkton.
Serdachny High Performance Power Skating and Hockey Skills Camps were held for the first time last week.
“It’s a power skating and hockey camp. We focus on stick handling, skating, a lot of agility work and working on our strides. It’s an all around camp that encompasses everything,” Serdachny said.
“We have a lot of equipment: parachutes, resistance belts, shallow straps – we try to make it fun and bring in equipment that the kids enjoy using.”
The turn out for last week’s camp was bigger than he anticipated. They received approximately 80 kids, aged from IP (5-6 years) up to midget (17 and under).
Serdachny said one of the most important things to him is having experienced instructors running the camps.When it comes to his own experience, he said that he was taught by “arguably the best instructor in the world,” his cousin, Steve Serdachny.
“I worked his camps for over 12 years. I went to Sweden and Finland, and coached hockey camps there with him,” he said. “A lot of knowledge I’ve gained came from his camp, and I’m bringing it to this local area.”
“I always had to travel to get that quality of camp, and now I want to bring that quality to Yorkton.”
Serdachny played on the Terriers for four years. He said those years account for some of his best memories.
“It’s a fun time of life. Playing in front of your hometown crowd and having some of your friends around, and to have your parents and family come and watch you, it’s a very enjoyable experience.”
After his time on the Terriers, Serdachny went to school in New York. He stayed there for three years, and played on the Manhattanville College team.
After New York, he returned to Saskatchewan and attended the University of Regina for another three years, where he got his education degree.
Things came together for him, and now he teaches here in Yorkton.
“I like to keep busy, and farming, hockey school and teaching definitely keeps me busy,” Serdachny said.
As for the future, he’s hoping the camps here will grow, providing him the opportunity to coach the kids who are growing up playing hockey in Yorkton, just as he did.
“This was our first year, and there will be camps around this time every year,” he said.
He’s also looking into adding camps throughout the upcoming fall and winter months. As decisions are made, the public will learn more.
