After five years of identifying hockey talent for the Portland Winterhawks, Trevor Sprague is now sharing those secrets with his hometown Prince George Cougars.
Sprague has joined a team of 11 Cougars scouts headed by Bob Simmonds of Edmonton, whose job it is to scour the rinks of Western Canada and the western United States for players worthy of wearing WHL jerseys.
"For me, being in the North, it's my job to make sure I know all our top prospects there and also in major midget throughout British Columbia," said Sprague. "I'll be traveling to some key bantam tournaments to make sure I know the guys we'll want for the bantam draft coming up in 2015."
Sprague, 36, now entering his seventh season as head coach of the Cariboo Cougars major midget team, has a long history of working with successful hockey programs. The Winterhawks were WHL finalists the past four seasons and won the championship in 2013. Prior to that, Sprague spent three seasons as a scout for the Westside Warriors of the BCHL, after a two-year stint scouting for the Prince George Spruce Kings.
"Nobody bleeds for the North like Trevor Sprague," said Cougars general manager Todd Harkins. "He is an extremely hard-working and trustworthy individual who has done a phenomenal job scouting and recruiting for the Cariboo Cougars and he shares our commitment and passion to building a perennial winner in Prince George."
The Cougars' first-round bantam pick in 2014, Justin Almeida, picked fifth overall in the May 1 draft, will suit up for the Cariboo Cougars this season. Sprague plans to work closer with the WHL Cougars to integrate the two teams and involve them in joint initiatives with minor hockey associations. The midgets will have opportunities to work with the junior team coaches in practice situations where they can benefit from the knowledge of the WHL Cougars staff headed by Mark Holick.
"Having them come out and run practice for our guys and be more involved in what's happening in the major midget league is going to benefit our team and our coaching staff as well," said Sprague. "We build the best hockey players and we can build them even better with our two organizations leading the way."
Simmonds, a retired RCMP officer, was promoted to the role as director of scouting after seven seasons with the team, filling a position vacated when Harkins was hired as Cougars general manager. Bill Horton of St. Paul, Minn., was named director of U.S. scouting.
"To say that I am excited and thrilled would be a major understatement," said Simmonds. "There's a lot of hard work that lies ahead of us but I cannot wait to get at it. When I approach my scouting duties I believe that I am not only a representative of the hockey team but also an ambassador for the city of Prince George."
The Cougars also announced Tom Hengen of Vancouver has been hired as their Lower Mainland scout. Hengen served the past six seasons as head scout of the Penticton Vees. Hengen's son Michael joined the Cougars last month as an assistant coach.
The Cougars retained seven other scouts from last season including: Darren McFarland (B.C. Interior), Corey Lyons (rural Alberta), Lyle Feser (Calgary), Jason Gordon (Saskatchewan), Kirk McCuspey (Manitoba), Ben Stromberg (U.S. Rocky Mountain region), and Nick Gallo (western U.S.).
The Cougars training camp starts Friday, Aug. 22.
