Team Alberta selections announced

With a couple minutes left in the Hurricanes game last night I thought this column would be a wrap up of the winter hockey season in Lethbridge. Of course a Dylan Cozens goal late in the third set the stage for Tyler Wong to send the Hurricanes to the Eastern Conference Final. In doing so the hockey season is extended for an exciting group that is creating a ton of civic pride in our city.

My column a couple weeks ago spoke on the impact of getting cut, specifically from short term competition teams such as Alberta Cup.

For me, I was cut from Alberta Cup in favour of a goalie who never even played Midget AAA. But I wasn’t the only goalie who was cut from that team to go on to a higher level. Brad Eidness played against me at the University of North Dakota and was also an NHL Draft Pick, Jeff Malcolm is still playing in the ECHL after ending my junior season in college on his way to a National Championship with Yale, and Aaron Dell was sitting on the bench the other night for the San Jose Sharks while they destroyed the Oilers 7-0. They were all cut from that same team.

Another player who didn’t make Alberta Cup the year I tried out was Brandon Sutter. He has 596 games and counting in the NHL.

I’ve spent the last couple months on a crash course of the process that Team Alberta uses to select these teams.

The Team Alberta event planning as well as the process and execution of team selection for Alberta Cup, Pee Wee Prospects or Alberta Challenge isn’t within my role at Hockey Alberta.

Nonetheless, I have had the privilege of working closely with the Team Alberta department on various initiatives recently.

I want to start by congratulating the local players who made the Alberta Challenge South Teams, Jadynn Morden, Hayleigh Craig and Isabelle Dyck.

I also want to congratulate the local players who made the Pee Wee Prospects South Teams, Sheldon Sawyer, Nixon Ordway, Jed Magarell, Marshall Finnie, Cole Wirun and John VandenElzen.

On the other hand, to take my Hockey Alberta hat off and focus solely on my Lethbridge bias, I did see a possibility of a few more local players on these teams. Having watched enough of these local players this year I was anticipating a few more local players on these teams.

But don’t forget how extremely challenging it is to select the top players in a zone, especially when over 300 players are trying out for between 20 and 60 spots.

Team Alberta aims to find the most equitable and fair way to select the top players for their zone teams.

The reality is that players will be missed, I know some that were. But the process aims to, in a short term competition, find the players who had the best tryout and based on that process were the most deserving of a spot on the zone team.

At those age groups with the development that will continue to occur that is the most justifiable process in selecting these teams.

Don’t forget that programs such as the U16 Western Branch Challenge, Hockey Canada’s U17 Program or the U18 Female Program scout players extensively to find the best team based on body of work.

But the goal for the regional camps and provincial tournaments is to give more kids an opportunity to be seen and more kids an opportunity to play in these high performance tournaments.

Don’t forget that the development of young players varies greatly from year to year and from player to player.

For myself, I was a late bloomer, for some kids they bloom at 15. The Team Alberta programs are all about trying to help develop these players and expose them for the next level.

I know that there is no perfect process, and parents and athletes need to understand that as well.

It is probably human nature to focus as much on the one or two players who didn’t make the team than to focus on five or six who did.

The players who made the teams deserved to be there. The players who didn’t make the teams have a responsibility to prove a mistake was made. I know firsthand that there is still a lot of hockey left to be played.

For now I want to focus on the players who made the teams.

When Alberta Cup plays in a couple weeks in Canmore there will be six local players involved. When the Pee Wee Prospects comes to Lethbridge in May there will be six more local players that will be excited to play in front of their home community. And at the Alberta Challenge three very talented female players will represent our city.

Our city continues to be a hockey hotbed and these players, and of course our Hurricanes, will continue to make our city proud.