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Vanderhoof home to new bantam team

B.C. Hockey is expanding a bantam zone team pilot program for next season and one of the clubs will be based in Vanderhoof. The North West Lumberjacks will draw their players - aged 13 and 14 - from the host community and locations to the west.
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The North West Lumberjacks are a new bantam zone team that will play out of Vanderhoof starting next hockey season. The Lumberjacks jersey and colour scheme is shown above.

B.C. Hockey is expanding a bantam zone team pilot program for next season and one of the clubs will be based in Vanderhoof.

The North West Lumberjacks will draw their players - aged 13 and 14 - from the host community and locations to the west. The Lumberjacks will skate in the bantam Tier 1 division of the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association, which includes the Prince George Farr Fabricating Cougars and three Okanagan zone teams that were established last season - Thompson, North and Central. Vanderhoof resident and Lumberjacks head coach Marty Floris said a South Okanagan club will also be in the mix for 2017-18.

As part of the new look, zone teams will also be operating in the Yukon and east Kootenay regions. Floris is unsure how those clubs will fit within the overall plan but said it's likely certain weekends will be blocked off for showcase events that will bring all teams to one location.

The aim of the B.C. Hockey zone program is to provide opportunities for players to compete at the highest possible level.

Floris, named bench boss of the Lumberjacks in late May, said it's "very exciting" to have a zone team in Vanderhoof. He expects the club to be on a bit of a learning curve in its inaugural season.

"We're going to take some licks early," he said, but added that after a period of adjusting to the speed of the game, the players will realize they can compete.

The Lumberjacks landed in Vanderhoof based on a proposal submitted to B.C. Hockey by northwest district president Dan Nickel. Players will stay with billet families and attend Nechako Valley secondary school, which has its own hockey program. Team members will also have access to strength and conditioning programs.

"We have a lot of things in place already," Floris said.

The Lumberjacks will hold an identification camp Aug. 11-13 in Smithers. Floris anticipates close to 40 players attending and, ideally, wants to select the team based on what he sees that weekend.

"We're hoping to come away from that with our team because that will give us enough time where, if people are looking to find billets, we can set that up," he said. "We won't be right under the gun and I don't think it's fair to bring kids here for three weeks or a month and then say, 'Oh, sorry,' and then they're already in school and we've got to send them back (home). I know that they do that in other places as kids get older but I think when they're this young, if I commit to a kid, that's not the kid's fault, that's me. So I'd make the commitment to the kid and the family that he's staying here."

The bantam zone program is seen as a potential precursor to a major bantam league in B.C.

"That's kind of the perception that's out there, I think, that they're going to try and have a league like that," Floris said.

"A bantam league I think is what they're proposing to do to try and keep some kids a little closer to home - whether you call it major bantam or super bantam or just the B.C. bantam league," Floris said. "I'm not sure what their ideas are on that but I think it's a viable option, especially for the kids up here, our kids."

In 2004, B.C. Hockey introduced the Major Midget League, which, for the majority of its existence, has had 11 teams. The MML has been successful in developing 15- to 17-year-old players for higher levels of hockey, including several players who have come through the Prince George-based Cariboo Cougars organization.

Trevor Sprague, general manager of the Cougars, is fully in favour of major bantam hockey in B.C. He said, however, the major bantam subject did not come up at last weekend's B.C. Hockey annual general meeting at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops.

"I think it's something that they're going to see how (the zone team program) goes over the year," said Sprague, whose team won regular-season and playoff championships in 2016-17 and hosted the Telus Cup national tournament. "They've obviously talked about it a little bit with me and I said it's a no-brainer. You've got one of the best major midget teams in the country right here in your own backyard and you see how successful it is.

"I think the Cariboo (Amateur Hockey Association) will watch and see how things go, and go from there," Sprague added. "But I think Cariboo has got the coaches within the region to be able to rock that team and do a great job. I think for all the teams that are (in the northwest) like Vanderhoof and Whitehorse, if they go after our model of what we do here as a major midget team they're going to have a lot of success."

Alberta has had a major bantam hockey league since 1990.