Trevor Sprague just wants more kids from northern B.C. and the Yukon to have the chance to play high-level midget hockey.
As the general manager and former head coach of the highly-successful Cariboo Cougars major midget program, Sprague has for years been pushing for the province to organize a league for 15-year-old players to keep them closer to home as an alternative to the high cost of playing in hockey academies in the Okanagan and Lower Mainland.
That push has now come to shove. Starting this fall the Cariboo Cougars will be one of 10 teams to start the B.C. Hockey Minor Midget League. The new league will provide a competitive playground for 19 Cariboo Cougar players born in 2003, taking on their provincial peers.
"We don't have a whole lot of 15-year-olds who play on this (major midget) hockey club," said Sprague. "Last year (defenceman Jacob) Gendron was the only one, the year before we had none, and the year before that we had four because we were building (to host) Telus Cup.
"We can only take 20 guys, so if we keep two 15-year-olds where do those other guys play? We have so many kids who go away who really want to be Cariboo Cougars but we just don't have a spot for them. Now we have 19 spots for them with the U15s around."
What's been happening with shrinking enrollment in minor hockey, especially in the smaller centres, is the better players who want to play higher-calibre opponents to speed their own development are leaving for the academies, provided their families can afford the fees which are as high as $40,000 per season. Sprague hopes the new team, which carries a $6,000 annual program fee, will stem the flow of talent from northern regions and keep those players closer to their hometowns.
Like the Cougars, the nine other minor midget teams are affiliates of major midget teams. That includes Thompson, Okanagan, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Northwest, Greater Vancouver, Vancouver Northeast, Valley West, South Island and North Island. Kootenay, which has a major midget team, will not be part of the minor midget league.
Brian Toll, a former Cariboo Cougars assistant coach who this past season guided the Coast Inn of the North Cougars to the Tier 1 midget provincial silver medal, will be the head coach of the minor team. Chase Astorino, a former Cariboo Cougars player, will be the assistant coach. Former WHL Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds will be the team's goaltender coach. Edmonds moved back to Prince George to study criminology after playing in U Sports last season at the University of Lethbridge. Curtis MacDonald will help Sprague manage the minor team.
Sprague said Toll and the other coaches will work closely with the Cariboo major midget coaches - Tyler Brough, Justin Fillion, RJay Berra and goalie coach Lyman Miller - to bring the 15-year-olds into the fold and prepare them to make the jump to the major midget team as affiliated players during the season or permanently in subsequent seasons.
Sprague is trying to schedule home games on the same days the major midgets play to try to maximize fan exposure for both teams. They will be on the ice six times per week, including three team tactics sessions with their coaches and three days of skill development with Prince George secondary school instructor Renzo Berra.
Each team in the new league will play a 30-game schedule. The Cariboo minor team will also play exhibition and tournament games, bringing the total to about 60 games in a season.
Sprague said eventually the Cariboo Cougars' umbrella might extend to the new regional bantam team coached by Mirsad Mujcin and the Northern Capitals female triple-A midget team.
"It's just really good development for the players in the north," said Sprague. "We've seen a lot of success in Alberta and how they've been doing it and we want to match that success and develop more players. It's a great pipeline to keep kids in the north, where they don't have to go anywhere. It's huge for us.
"And it's not just for developing players, it's for developing coaches, too. We've got a lot of good young coaches coming up and it's great for us to mentor these guys."
This past weekend at the Elksentre, 130 midget-aged players auditioned for the two teams at the Cougars' spring identification camp.
