UNITY - The U18AA Wheatkings started league play off with a few losses but have since bounced back and now have a 4-win 4-loss record as of Oct. 28.
One of those wins came in overtime versus the Saskatoon Screaming Eagles, and has been dubbed as a highlight of their season so far. In fact, the finish was so exciting, the team was able to get a video clip of the game winning goal off LiveBarn and posted it to their Facebook page to showcase what this team is made of and what they are capable of.
October has been a heavy schedule with 10 games on tap, eight of those games having been played already.
With several of the players involved in high school football or volleyball season, the team fine-tuned the schedule the best they could to ensure their players can participate in other sports as well as hockey. In fact, a couple of games were changed due to nine of the players being part of conference finals. There still remain five players in football participating in provincial quarterfinals and the Wheat Kings says they will be cheering them on.
Manager Marli Shepherd says, “We have had some affiliate players join us due to some injuries and suspensions. They seemed to fit in with our team quite well and we are grateful they could help us out. We are coming off a weekend with two wins and we are excited to keep the streak going. “
The team’s schedule or other information can be found on the U18 West Central Wheat Kings Facebook page or the SAAHL website.
The 2021-22 U18AA West Central Wheatkings Roster includes Macklin players Leighton Partington, Ty Partington and Kaden Veller. Unity’s Hunter Sperle and Colbey Frocklage are also on this year’s roster. Spencer Krieger is the lone Luseland player, while Kerrobert players on the team include Austin Shepherd and Emery Cholin. The town of Scott is represented by player Kayden Cey.
The roster is rounded out with players Blake Sittler, Nate Gowen, Ben Walz, Mitchell Robbie, Jacob Wagner, Calvin Feader, Landyn Nash, Austin Burton, Jonathan Kampen
The U18 team is under the leadership of Head Coach Pat Sperle supported by Ryan Partington and Pat Veller in assistant coach roles. John Klaehn, aka Huntzie, continues his role as trainer with this team. Marli Shepherd is the team’s manager.
Shepherd tells the Press-Herald, “We are just excited to be playing hockey right now and are hopeful that we will actually have a full season this year. The extra precautions that we have to follow at the moment are not really anything different than we have been dealing with since the start of COVID. Hockey Sask has updated the Return to Hockey COVID-19 Response Safety Guideline so we will be sure to follow that. We are aware that there may be different rules in different rinks and communities. We are ready to do whatever it takes if that means we still get to play hockey.”
The U18 West Central Wheat Kings tell the Press-Herald that they are excited to have a good mix of players that all bring something different to the team.
