After a long wait, the Drumheller Dragons will be returning to the den this month when they begin training for the upcoming season.
With an exhibition game scheduled against Olds on August 30, the team will be back in the locker room on the 26th.
Head coach Dan Price is hopeful for this season, as the team has kept the same core that has now become older and stronger.
“We have let it evolve naturally,” Price said last Wednesday. “Hitting the ground running, we have set up for sustainable success by keeping younger guys together.”
The Dragons have had good success recruiting this off-season: picking up perhaps the biggest player in the league, the 6’9”, 230 lbs. defenseman and centre Sean Sanford.
Known for effectively combining his intelligence and vision of the ice with his strong skating ability and imposing physical package, Sean enters the AJHL as the biggest player ever to don a Dragons’ jersey, and as one of the tallest players ever to play hockey at a competitive level.
The team has also signed two local players, Jared Potter and Josh Kluck, both 16. Both are from Drumheller.
Since new management took over two seasons ago, the Dragons have been building up from a once young team.
Possibly their most veteran team yet, they now know each other well and know how to mesh.
“I look at last years team, and it was mostly made up of 18 year old players,” Price reflects.
“Now that entire group are coming back, making us at least on par with the rest of the league in term of age and size.
On August 24, team hopefuls will try to emerge from their mini-camp as Dragons. Only a few prospects will make it through.
Players in the main camp will train from August 26 to the 29, culminating in the Miner’s Cup, an intra-squad game on Sunday August 29.
They then play Olds at 7:30 Monday.
