The huge distances and sparse populations that characterize the geography of B.C. add to the challenge of minor hockey players from smaller centres keeping up with their provincial peers.
They want to play the game at the highest possible level but sometimes their hometowns are too small to ice a team strong enough to compete against teams from more densely-populated areas in a rep team league.
For those families who can afford it, the answer might be sending that bantam- or midget-aged kid away to play for a private academy team. But that requires a five-figure investment, every season.
BC Hockey has launched a new pilot project to create a similar and cheaper opportunity for kids in the 13-14-year-old (bantam) and 15-17-year-old (midget) age groups to play in a competitive league.
Minor hockey's provincial body has expanded its regional team concept this season to add two Prince George-based teams which will draw players from the surrounding communities in the North Central region to play a 20-game schedule (10 at home, 10 on the road).
The North Central double-A bantam team will compete in an eight-team league against the East Kootenays, Northeast, Yukon and Okanagan (which will have four teams in each age group).
North Central midgets will be part of a six-team double-A loop with four Okanagan teams and one from the East Kootenays based in Cranbrook.
The regional teams replace the Prince George Tier 1 midget and bantam teams that in previous years competed in the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association and for provincial titles.
"It's zone-based now," said Sean Orr, BC Hockey's senior manager of leagues and events. "It's not a Prince George team, it's a North Central team so players can be selected from all over the district to participate on the team. It allows a player, regardless of where they live, the ability to play to the highest level."
The program was implemented two years ago in four zones of the Okanagan. Last season the Yukon and East Kootenay joined, with North Central and Northeast added this season.
About a third of the players on each local team will be from out of town and in some cases will be billeted.
"We want to make sure it's affordable for all the players," said Orr. "No different from major midget, we'll work with the players on payment plans and accessing a scholarship and assistance fund we have at BC Hockey.
"We want to provide that fun opportunity to develop players at the higher level while at the same time working with our minor hockey associations to have more kids playing hockey."
BC Hockey is charging $3,350 in program fees for North Central players, which covers game and practice costs, officials, and off-ice conditioning and uniforms and other team supplies. That does not include the cost of tournament fees, transportation, meals and hotels. Teams will attend a minimum of three and as any as five tournaments per season.
Mirsad Mujcin will be the head coach of the North Central bantam team, while Jason Garneau will head the midget team (see other story). Norm Livingstone will be the North Central zone lead and will work to co-ordinate the program with the two coaches and Allan Bristowe, manager of programs for BC Hockey North regional centre.
The North Central midget and bantam double-A teams held identification camps in April and both teams are hosting evaluation camps this weekend at the Elksentre. The midget team won't finalize its roster until junior and major midget teams have finalized their carding allotments by the end of September.
Garneau, Mujcin will guide local squads
Jason Garneau is back on the minor hockey scene again as the newly-appointed head coach of the North Central midget double-A zone team.
After 2 1/2 years away from the game while he was commuting to Nanaimo for his day job as a construction manager, Garneau is getting in on the ground floor behind the bench guiding one of the two Prince George-based teams set to compete in BC Hockey's new midget and bantam double-A leagues.
"I'm real excited, I think it's something that's really needed in our area to keep our local northern boys a little closer to home and still playing a high-quality level of hockey," said Garneau. "Those kids who are in Quesnel or Williams Lake can move up to play with guys more of their calibre. It's going to enable them to play to a higher level and keeps them from having to go to academies."
The North Central team will be the third-tier local midget team, a step below the Cariboo Cougars major midgets and the newly-formed minor midget team. The double-A squad replaces the Tier 1 midget team which won provincial titles in 2016 and 2017 and was runner-up for the title last season.
"The Cariboo Cougars are taking the top midget guys, which is great, and it just gives these guys who are not quite at that level somewhere else they can play at a higher level with good coaching," said Garneau.
Garneau, 51, served eight seasons as an assistant coach for the Prince George Spruce Kings from 2008-2016, after 18 seasons as a Prince George Minor Hockey Association coach. Riley Hawes and Jordan Garneau are the midget team's assistant coaches.
Mirsad Mujcin was head coach of the Prince George Tier 1 bantam team the past four seasons and it will be business as usual for him and his longtime assistant coach, Mike Burgess, now that they're in charge of the North Central bantam double-A team.
"It definitely opens up the demographics of this team and the population base and I'm excited for hockey fans in town," said Mujcin. "I'd go out of town last year and watch a bantam Tier 2 team out of Williams Lake or anywhere north of Terrace and you'd see a kid and you'd say, 'Wow that player's good, it would have been good to have him on our team.' Now's the opportunity."
Mujcin said the benefits of being in Prince George, where there are two junior teams - Cougars and Spruce Kings - as well as the Cariboo Cougars organization, will filter down to the two double A teams.
"We still have to build a program to entice these players to commit to coming, but they're closer to home and it's a less-expensive alternative," said the 44-year-old Mujcin. "The benefits of being here is we have such a big hockey culture in Prince George, and players from the small towns get to absorb that and be a part of that. When they go back to their hometowns they'll say, 'Wow, that was a good experience," and will tell the other parents.
"We've seen with the Cariboo Cougars, being just a midget-aged program, how professional those kids acted around town, always putting into the community, and those are the same things we want to install in bantam here too. We want to build future hockey players, workers and students."
Former Spruce Kings Stephen Penner and Jake LeBrun are also part of the bantam coaching staff. The 19-player zone team will put on its annual Crossroads Cup tournament this winter and will host the provincial double-A bantam championship next March.
-- CLARKE, Citizen staff
