The Midget B Raptors have been hard at work staying competitive in the Midget C division.
This weekend, the team faced Oyen and the 3 C’s Coyotes.
The second game was an at home back and forth match ultimately ending in a 6-6 tie.
“The kids played pretty decent, but that was their second game this weekend and I think they were a little tired so we ended up tying which was alright, better than a loss,” said head coach Jason James
“It would have been nice to get a win but the kids are playing quite decent, moving the puck around good, their passes look good and some of the plays are nice but we’re in a pretty competitive division.”
The midgets look forward to fresh competition at their next tournament in Coaldale in January. They will be challenged by teams from all over the south division, many of which they have never seen before.
“It’s new teams that you don’t even know and you get out there for the first time and it’s always interesting,” said James. “The kids seem to play better that way too because when you play the team already twice, and you have to play them for a third time, sometimes you just don’t get ready for the game whereas with a team that you’ve never played before, you get a little bit nervous and you seem to play better.”
For the Raptors league games, all teams stack up well with very minimal differences between them.
“All of the teams are within one or two goals like any team can beat any other team at any given time so it’s good for the kids too, it makes them work hard,” said James.
Overall, the team is well on their way to another provincial bound season.
“Everything seems to be going quite well, like I say these kids are working as a team and passing the puck well, hopefully we just continue on,” said James.
Coach James wants to continue working on simple yet important skills that the players need in order to be successful.
“A lot of it is back to basics,” said James. “A lot of skating, passing, and shooting and then once you can do that well then it’s a lot easier to run the systems that we as coaches pick to run.”
The Drumheller Dragon’s head coach Kevin Hasselberg and assistant coach Brayden Klimosko have even taken time out of their schedule to give some pointers for the budding team.
“It’s been nice having conversations with the Dragons coaches, they have been a real help on different drills and different strategies for what to do with these kids,” said James.
Some midget players have their sights set on entering a higher league after this year but coach James gave a sober reminder of post secondary and of course, parent approval.
“There are definitely kids that can continue on, they have the skill to do it, it just depends on what’s on their parents and their agenda for the rest of their life,” said James.
The team has banked five wins, two losses, and a tie so far this season and will regroup after the first week in January after the holiday season.
