Pictou Landing player part of Team Atlantic for Aboriginal games
It’ll be a lot of firsts for Wayne Denny in this next little while.
First time in an airplane. First time he’s been to western Canada. First time playing at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships.
“It’s a big opportunity. It’s very exciting to be playing with a group of other Aboriginal players,” said the 16-year-old resident of the Pictou Landing First Nations reserve, and a Grade 10 student at North Nova Education Centre.
It won’t be just about hockey: all the players, who had to show they are attending school and posting solid grades in the classroom, will be required to bring along some homework to concentrate on when they find some spare time.
Denny is also looking forward to the chance to test his skills against older, more experienced players, which he hopes will help him improve. The maximum age for players at the National Aboriginal Championships is 18.
“There’s going to be some be high-skilled players there, junior A players, maybe major junior,” he said.
Denny, who just finished his first season as a winger with the Pictou County Weeks Major Midgets, will fly out to British Columbia on Friday night, arriving on the west coast around 4:30 a.m. Pacific Time (he halfjokingly admitted he’s “a little bit nervous” about flying, having
watched a few episodes of the TV program ‘Mayday’).
Denny and his teammates will take the ferry from the B.C. mainland across the Strait of Georgia and over to Vancouver Island (the tournament is taking place in Cowichan, near the city of Duncan, on the southern part of the island).
After trying out for Team Atlantic in Millbrook and Membertou,
Denny found out a few weeks back he’d made the cut among the approximately 45 hopefuls. One of his teammates is Hunter Martin, who hails from Millbrook, Colchester County, and also plays with the Weeks Major Midgets.
“I’m thrilled,” Denny said of his chance.
“I just want to get out there and represent, and meet new friends from other communities across Atlantic Canada.”
Teams competing at the 2017 NAHC include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec), the Atlantic region, and the North, which is comprised of players from Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut). The tournament is open to both male and female teams.