As the fall season slowly creeps closer, the hockey rinks in Yorkton are getting ready to accommodate hundreds of young players.
For IP hockey players, Peewee and younger, the season started off last week with the Highway 10 Hockey School.
Taking place at the Gallagher Centre, the annual instructional camp consisted of full-day lessons for 88 students on the fundamentals of hockey.
Jason Gordon, co-owner of the hockey school, explains, "We like to run a full day camp that includes two ice sessions a day, off-ice training and then dryland training also (along with) classroom tutorials. Our school has been in Yorkton for seven years and it's operated by (co-owner) Dan Cross and myself."
The purpose of the camp is multi-faceted. As Gordon points out, it provides an opportunity for kids to develop and grow within the game and also gives parents a bit of a break.
"A lot of times it gives those parent coaches a break so that they can hear from some other coaches," he says.
Given the younger age of the students, there were also some fun and games mixed in throughout the week.
"(We) did a few other fun things alongside hockey. We had leisure swimming this year and team building activities," Gordon recalls.
Originating from Yorkton, the Highway 10 Hockey School has made it a priority to become part of the fabric of the Yorkton community.
Gordon says that the school accomplishes this by employing local-area instructors to help teach the youngsters.
"This year we were lucky enough to have six other great instructors," he points out.
The 2010 instructors included; Jeff Sperling, Brett Holloway, Kale Thomson of the Yorkton Harvest, Chad Nehring and Tyson Hobbins (of the Lake Superior State Lakers)?and the Yorkton Terriers John Neibrandt. "We're locally owned, locally operated and we try to contribute as much to the community as we can," Gordon emphasizes.
The final day of the camp featured some fun events for the kids including a lengthy scrimmage.
There was also a draw for tuition money to go towards goaltending instruction at another hockey school.
The winner of the prize, selected at random from all of the goaltenders in attendance, was Keegan Dudley of Foam Lake. The goaltending scholarship was presented in honour of Harley Campbell.
Campbell's list of contributions to the sport are numerous; including time spent as an instructor with the International Goaltenders School, being a former trainer and goalie coach with the Yorkton Terriers (along with several teams from the Manitoba Junior Hockey League).
Gordon details the motivation behind the scholarship, "To keep (Campbell's) memory alive, the Popowich family from Yorkton wanted to donate money on his behalf for a young aspiring goaltender in hockey schools."
Dudley, the lucky recipient of the prize, was beaming from ear to ear after receiving it. The young goaltender's smile was just one of the many on display during the entire week of activities.
