International honours for busy Yetman
Ice Hockey/ball hockey player gets award for his play at world U20 tournament
With winter lurking around the corner, Nathan Yetman has switched sporting gears but will still be taking slapshots this season as a member of the University of P.E.I. Panthers.
Yetman was playing hockey — kind of — the past summer, as one of Canada’s elite ball hockey players, helping the national team to a silver-medal finish at the world championship in the Czech Republic.
Domestically, Yetman was part of the Black Horse team, which finished third at the nationals in Saint John, N.B.
While it was announced at the International Street and Ball Hockey Federation annual meeting last spring, it was only publicly revealed this week that the 21-year-old from Mount Pearl was the 2016 ISBHF international player of the year, sharing the award with Slovak Marcel Cibik.
He won the award based on his work again with Team Canada, this time at the world U20 championship in Sheffield, England in the summer of 2016.
Canada settled for silver in that event, following a shootout loss to Slovakia in the final.
Yetman was an assistant captain on Canada, and one of the tournament’s top scorers.
International competition is nothing new to Yetman, who was a minor hockey star coming up through the ranks in Mount Pearl and St. John’s.
He skated for Canada’s hockey team at the 2012 World Youth Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and the following year was part of the Team Atlantic squad in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Drummondville and Victoriaville, Que.
Seven Newfoundlanders actually played on that 2013 U17 team.
Yetman was also part of the 2011 Newfoundland and Labrador Canada Games unit in Halifax.
Drafted 100th overall in the 2012 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft by the P.E.I. Rocket, Yetman toiled two seasons for the Rocket before closing out his junior career in the Maritime Junior Hockey League with the Summerside Capitals.
He captained Summerside last season.
Now, Yetman is poised to join the Panthers in the highlycompetitive Atlantic University Sport conference, where his teammate on UPEI will be Marcus Power.
Power also played on the national ball hockey squad this past summer.
Yetman is following his brother Brad, who also played in the QMJHL and AUS. Brad Yetman was also on the Canadian ball hockey roster at the worlds in June.