Nowhere to go but up for midget Royals
South Island begins play today against Greater Vancouver
As the new general manager of the South Island Royals, Sam McMullen looks forward to what the entire organization can achieve this B.C. Major Midget Hockey League season.
It all begins today as the Royals welcome the Greater Vancouver Canadians to Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena at 4 p.m. and follow it up with a Sunday morning affair at 8:30 at Pearkes Arena.
It is a transitional year for the S.I. Royals program, which moves into a hockey academy setting at Spectrum with McMullen — who recorded 99 points in his final year in the VIJHL with the Victoria Cougars — at GM. Adam Geric is back as head coach with Brad Cook, Scott Hawthorne, Liam Sproule and Matt Chester all taking on various assistants’ roles. Darren Smith runs the academy program through Spectrum with Cook his head instructor.
“He and I are like partners in this,” McMullen said of Smith. “I have the say for the team and he has the say at school, but we share ideas on how things should be handled with the team and at school.
“He’s been the biggest help for me through this whole process. He’s an experienced guy in running the program the last 13 to 15 years. He knows what to do in certain situations, when to respond and when not to respond and how to respond.”
McMullen has also mentored under Cook with the Saanich Braves, acting as an assistant coach with the VIJHL team the last two years and also coaching the Braves’ midget team.
“The adjustment from player to coach was tough because you’re still in that hockey world, but you’re in the dressing room and still feel like you’re a player and you want to be a part of that group,” he said. “I separated myself as quickly as possible from player to coach and from there it was an easy adjustment because I had Brad as my mentor.
“He taught me a lot because he did the same thing, just being a little older coming back from his playing days in the ECHL with the Salmon Kings.”
As GM his responsibilities are more as an executive.
“I do enjoy it and players do come up and ask my opinion all the time because I am watching from the stands and it’s a different perspective,” said McMullen.
This year’s Royals are following up a disappointing season in which the team struggled to a basement-dwelling 4-32-1-3 record. A handful of players are back, including captain Matthew Berryman and starting netminder Connor Cheyne.
Defenceman Ethan Brandwood is a prospect with the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL and Michael Hoekstra is a draft pick of the Prince George Cougars of the WHL.
“It’s hard to tell,” McMullen said of where the team will finish. “You can’t guarantee 40 wins and you can’t guarantee 10 wins. It’s all up in the air being so early.
“For our group and staff the slogan is to win the day. Go into each day and come out a winner no matter what it’s in — the classroom, the weight room or on the ice. If we do that day-in and day-out we should put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs.”
Eighteen victories usually gets a team there and that will be a target, but the Royals also want to get back to the Mac’s tournament in Calgary at Christmas time and that would require a top six placing in the BCMMHL by December.