Chris Jandric finally had a chance to get caught up on his sleep.
While shuteye time is an eight-hour-a-day occupation for most people, Jandric's sleep schedule was all over the map on Labour Day weekend while he was fulfilling his commitments as a defenceman for two hockey teams in two different leagues.
Jandric, 17, rode the bus Friday with his Vernon Vipers teammates traveling up from the Okanagan to play the Prince George Spruce Kings in a BCHL exhibition game at the Coliseum that night, then had to get up bright and early Saturday to make it to CN Centre in time for a 7:30 a.m. practice with the Cariboo Cougars at their B.C. Major Midget Hockey League training camp.
Then it was an hour of fitness testing, followed by a 60 minutes of 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 scrimmages. Jandric went home after that, had a nap, and came back to the rink for a two-hour scrimmage Saturday night. His hockey weekend ended with a 2 1/2-hour intrasquad game Sunday morning.
Jandric has a reputation as an unselfish, team-first player and did everything asked of him in his first tryout with the Vipers. Even though they returned him to the midget ranks he knows he played well enough to figure in the Vipers' future.
"(Vipers head coach and director of hockey operations Mark Ferner) told me I was right there, he just wants me to develop more in the major midget league or wherever I play and come back next year and see how I do," said the five-foot-eight, 150-pound Jandric, who played seven games for the Cougars last year, moving up from the Tier 1 midgets.
"I thought I did pretty well and the guys were awesome there. It's a great organization. It was fun playing against the Spruce Kings, I know probably half of them. The Vipers said I would definitely (be put on their list of affiliated players) and I'll down if someone is injured."
Jesse Pomeroy, played the same amount of hockey as Jandric did on the weekend but didn't have so far to go to complete his BCHL audition. The 16-year-old defenceman played against Jandric Friday to end his two-week trial with the Spruce Kings. He also left knowing he'll likely get a chance to play with the Kings this season as a midget call-up.
Pomeroy played hockey through the summer months and worked out with other junior-aged players in the city and in the gym at Xconditioning. He returned to the Cougars with renewed confidence, weighing 10 pounds heavier and standing two inches taller than a year ago.
"Junior is faster and I felt really good, really confident, I calmed myself down and got all the nerves out and I was playing good," said the nearly six-foot, 179-pound Pomeroy. "I've changed a lot, I'm kind of an offensive defenceman now who can make plays. I'm getting up there playing more power play and I'm able to make plays in the offensive zone and shoot the puck."
The Cougars are building a team to host the Telus Cup national midget championship in 2017 and this year's team will be predominantly 15- and 16-year-olds.
"We want the majority back for the following season so this will be a big teaching year for the younger guys but also we want to be competitive in our league, which we will be," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague.
That puts the onus on older players such as Jandric, Chase Dubois, Riley Coish and Brendan Moore to be leaders on the team. Thomas returned last week from the Seattle Thunderbirds camp, the team that picked him in the eighth round of the 2013 WHL bantam draft, and the Cougars are glad to have him back for a third season. In 39 games in 2014-15 Thomas had 25 goals and 24 assists for 49 points, 13th overall in the BCMMHL. Seattle has 12 returning forwards, which stacked the odds of making the team against the 17-year-old from Williams Lake.
"Seattle was a good experience, I got to play with a lot of the older players and just learned from their experience and I'll bring that here t improve my game," said Thomas. "It really opens your eyes to how hard you have to play to keep up with them to make the next level of hockey in junior.
"We have a really young team this year but I still think we have a good leadership core coming back from last year and we just have to show them how to play and we'll do good this year. We have a lot of returning strong defencemen and we'll be a fast, skilled offensive team."
Last season the midget Cats lost just eight games while laying claim to the regular season crown with a 29-8-3 record, then lost to Vancouver Northeast in the playoff final.
Several players who could play for the Cougars this season weren't in camp on the weekend while they were trying out for junior teams. That includes both goaltenders -- Dorrin Luding (Saskatoon, WHL) and Griffen Outhouse (Victoria, WHL), defenceman Conor McEachern (Portland, WHL), forwards Josh Maser (Prince Albert, WHL) and Ty Cole (Salmon Arm, BCHL), as well as three aspiring Prince George Cougars – forwards Justin Almeida, Tyler Ho and Ethan O'Rourke and defenceman Jonas Harkins.
All of them except Cole, Maser and O'Rourke played for the Cougars last year when they won the prestigious Mac's midget tournament in Calgary, defeating Regina in double-overtime on a goal from Dubois.
"That's the highlight of my career so far, it can't get much better than that," said Thomas. "We were a good team in our league but a lot of teams underestimated us."
With Luding and Outhouse trying to make their WHL teams, four goalies were invited to the camp, including 16-year-olds Jake Sweet and Aaron Jakubowski of Prince George, 15-year-old Marcus Allen of Fort St. James and 17-year-old Jamie Ferguson of Prince George.
Tyler Maser, a 16-year-old forward from Houston and the twin brother of Josh, had the top marks in Saturday's fitness tests. He's listed by the Prince Albert Raiders.
