For Bashaw’s youngest hockey players, a recent tournament was a great opportunity to showcase their improvement.
The Initiation Stars — ages four to six — hit the ice on Jan. 21 for a few games in a fun tournament format, with the 22 local kids split into a pair of teams to take on clubs from New Sarepta, Bowden, Stettler and Wetaskiwin.
“We have 22 players on the roster and in order for everyone to get plenty of playing time, we made two teams for the weekend tournament,” explained Stars head coach Derek Schneider.
“For a number of our four-year-olds, they have only been out for a couple of games, so this was a great opportunity to everyone a lot of touches of the puck.”
And that’s the ultimate goal at this entry-level hockey — getting players as many chances to put a stick to a puck as it greatly assists in skill development.
Schneider felt the games were terrific and that the kids had a blast.
“It was a great time for everyone. And, even though I was 100 per cent against the change (to a shorter ice surface), I have concluded now that it really does make a lot of sense,” he said.
“The kids don’t get overly tired. While they are wiped at the end of a game, they used to be really tired well before the game was over. As well with the change, every player can get a lot more touches of the puck on the smaller ice.”
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Schneider added there are normally three or four players on a team that can take the puck and fly around the ice, but on the smaller ice there isn’t as much room for that and the other players still get the chance to handle and skate with the puck.
The kids have been out practicing, upwards of three times a week, since October and only began playing games late in December.
“All of the players have a lot more confidence now, even the ones that only started hockey this season,” he added.
“They really want to get out there and play as they are having so much fun, so much so that they don’t even realize they are learning the various skills and how to play the game.”
Having played the game for a good chunk of his life, this is the first year Schneider has coached and has really noticed how much all of the kids have improved this season.
“Half the battle is getting them to learn and they are gaining knowledge and retaining it all extremely well, even if most of them don’t know it quite yet. Making it fun is half the battle in helping them learn,” he stated.
“Alberta loses about 10 per cent of kids from hockey annually. My goal is to have all of these players continue in hockey and at least play the next season.”
