This July, there will be a new hockey program in Melville and the head man will be teaching more than the basics.
Assistant coach of the SJHL's Yorkton Terriers Casey O'Brien will be at the helm of the high performance camp for elite players to be held at Horizon Credit Union Centre (HCUC) in Melville in the evening hours from July 9 - Aug. 23.
"A couple of players I know asked if I knew of a camp they could go to and I just decided I'd put one on here in Melville," says O'Brien.
The players taking part in the camp will be divided into two groups. One group will hit the ice Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening and they will be Bantam AA and Midget AA caliber players. Tuesday and Thursday players who have played at the Midget AAA level or higher will be put through their paces.
O'Brien says that the kids in the program come from as far away as Regina and he's pleased with the number of enrollments he's had already.
"My goalie spots are all full, but I still have some openings for defencemen and a few left for forwards," admits O'Brien who says word of mouth has generated most of the admissions.
"Some people have signed up for some of the sessions but they have committed to leave to go to other camps. I got a bit of a late start."
O'Brien will also be taking care of the hockey portion of the Supreme Skating School camp and he says that partially spurred him to make the decision to hold the program in Melville.
"I told guys I could get ice in Melville and boom, it took off from there."
Each session at the camp will last two hours with the first hour dedicated to skill development, power skating, timing and flow drills while the second hour will deal with small area games, scrimmages and conditioning. O'Brien says he's hoping to have 30 players involved in each group when the camp gets underway and he says the timing of the camp and the type of drills he has planned will only help players to achieve the next level in their game.
"More than a handful of these guys will be attending Western Hockey League camps and I thought this would be a good stepping-stone for them," says the former University of Guelph player who also spent a couple of years in Norway playing professionally.
O'Brien says the HCUC is a terrific facility for his hockey program.
Cost for the camp is $300 for skaters and O'Brien is also offering dryland training at a cost of $200 for 10 sessions. People wanting more information on the camp can contact O'Brien by email at [email protected].
