More than 60 players from the tyke to the midget divisions hit the ice this week at the fifth annual Summer Hockey School.
Put on by the Sunshine Coast Regional District at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre, players were treated to five days of on-ice and off-ice training.
There were 17 players in the tyke/atom division and 25 players in the peewee/bantam division with another 20 players in a night camp for bantam/midget players put on by former Sunshine Coast minor hockey star David Arduin.
Head instructor Mischa Polzin returned this week for his second year at the school. He said he was thrilled to come back after a successful first year.
"I think it was an awesome thing that we did last year," he said. "It's great coming up here and working with the kids."
Aiding Polzin was Arduin, who also helped during the two-day camps, ex-minor hockey player Danny Baker, who is getting set to start his first year at Elmira College in upstate New York, and Graydon Benner, another minor hockey alumni, who is starting his second year with the Notre Dame Hounds in Saskatchewan.
Dryland training, consisting of soccer, baseball, ultimate Frisbee, swimming and hockey specific training, was run by Sean Whalen, John MacLeod, Brent McCallum and Polzin.
"It's great for the community to have so many guys help out and lend their skills and expertise," said Polzin. "You have a couple of guys here in David and Danny who have gone on to junior and college hockey and to have them come back and give back to the community will only make a hockey school like this one stronger in the future."
Polzin said the school is a great way for the players to get in shape and improve their skills for the upcoming season.
"A lot of the kids remember me from last year and they know how I run the drills," he said. "You work hard, you have fun - that's the only to help the kids in the long run to make them better hockey players. I think nowadays our whole emphasis is on games. What's really important is to have these kids work on their skating, have them work on puck control. It's going to be tough because I know a lot of these kids haven't done a lot of work over the summer, but the kids are all working hard."
Arduin said he is thrilled to be involved in the hockey school, helping out Polzin during the day, and he is equally excited about hosting his own camp at night.
"Tom [Poulton] approached me about working at the school. It's something I always wanted to do, so of course I said yes," Arduin said. "Once I started looking into it, I noticed there wasn't a bantam/midget section, and for me that's the kind of group I want to work with. They're the kind of players who want to follow the college route or the junior hockey dream like Danny and me. Tom approached me and asked me whether I wanted to put it on myself. I went ahead with it and I have 20 guys signed up."
Arduin said he was a bit nervous on Monday night when the camp started, but he was bolstered by the commitment and enthusiasm of the players.
"Every drill that I'm doing is a drill that I did in junior and college. Kids have never seen drills like this. They are fast tempo, they have a lot of thinking and reacting. Then we took them on the field for some dryland and it was a lot different than doing a bicep curl in a mirror," Arduin said. "This is serious hockey training. We have speed ladders, agility boxes, you name it. They probably all had ice baths Monday night to heal up and get ready for today, but it's a conditioning prep camp, that's what they signed up for and that's what they're getting."
Arduin said he hopes the players and the parents get something out of the week that will help them during the season and beyond.
"I just wish that something like this was around when I was that age," he said. "It gives the kids also someone to talk to who has been through it. I told them if they have questions, need some advice, ask me because I've been around, and I've talked to a lot of people and made a lot of contacts, so I can answer a lot of those questions. It can only help them in the future."
Editor's note: Check out Coast Reporter sports next week for an in-depth interview with Danny Baker and David Arduin and their upcoming season of NCAA college hockey.
