There were 82 hockey players trying to impress Cariboo Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague this weekend in Prince George.
The B.C. Major Midget League team held its annual August training camp from Thursday to Sunday at the Elksentre and Prince George Coliseum, putting the 74 players and eight goaltenders through drills, meetings and scrimmages.
Sprague said he was happy with the hard work most of the 15- to-17-year-old players demonstrated over the weekend. He planned to cut the roster down Sunday to about 45 for September's camp. Sprague said he was especially impressed with the leadership of veterans Jake LeBrun and Logan Styler, as well as Kirk Hards and Liam Blackburn.
"You've got those guys that will be able to step up and play with a little bit of urgency to score goals," said Sprague, adding Hards and Styler played well together on Team Red. "I really liked what they were doing. It's good to see the chemistry that's happening there."
The two Prince George players, defenceman Todd Bredo and forward Brogan O'Brien, who were selected in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft by the Medicine Hat Tigers and Kelowna Rockets, respectively, were in the middle of the pack on Sprague's evaluation list midway through the camp.
"In their games [Saturday] they were effective in what they wanted to do and they did something each shift to kind of get noticed," said Sprague. "Their consistency worries me a little bit. They've just got to be assertive in what they're doing out there and want to be a Cariboo Cougar at the end of the day."
There was also the familiar name of Berra skating among the hopefuls with 15-year-old Isaiah following the path of older brothers RJay and Hayden-James.
"It's like you've got triplets but they're all different people at the same time and different ages," said Sprague. "He's got great hands and moves around the net quite a bit. He scored a couple goals. He doesn't back down from anybody."
Sprague said the youngest Berra needs to work on his skating but he probably already knows that.
"He's lacking in that a little bit but it's nothing that holds a Berra back ever," he said. "It's something that I'm sure he knows what he needs to do to be successful and play for the Cariboo Cougars at some point and time. We'll see if that's going to happen for him as the weeks go on."
A pleasant surprise for Sprague was seeing the talent of Lien Miller-Jeannotte of Fort St. John.
"I've liked what he's been doing," said Sprague about the 1996-born player. "He's a little green but he's doing a lot of great things out there on the ice to make himself better and make the team better. He's a guy that's on the puck all the time making something happen."
Silver medal: The weekend before Cougars training Logan Styler was in St. Louis where he took part in the annual roller hockey State Wars event, playing for the 1995 and 1996 British Columbia teams. Styler won a silver medal with the 1995 team.
