Roughly 70 hockey players showed up at Osoyoos’s Sun Bowl Arena from August 26 to 29 for the Osoyoos Coyotes’ main training camp. The players learned about nutrition, exercise and scrimmaged to demonstrate their skills. Photo by Laurena Weninger - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-September 1, 2010
By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times
“We’ll have our team pretty much selected by (September) sixth,” said Ken Law, head coach, explaining the process of nailing down just who is going to be playing on the Osoyoos Coyotes KIJHL hockey team this year.
Last weekend was the Coyotes’ “main camp” – a follow-up to the team’s spring camp held in April.
At spring camp, a number of young players were given some information about just what kind of players the team was looking for and how they could work over the summer to become more likely candidates to sit on the Coyotes bench.
“They all came back in excellent shape,” Law said.
Approximately 70 players showed up at the main camp held at Osoyoos’s Sun Bowl Arena from August 27 to 29.
“(From) as far south as Texas and as far east as Saskatoon,” said Law, about where the prospects came from.
The players that came to the camp were split into four teams, played a few games, took seminars on nutrition and exercise and met their billet families.
The point of the weekend was to bring the talent pool forward to further narrow down the team’s roster for the upcoming season.
Coming into the weekend, seven players had already been officially signed, including Osoyoos’s Troy Quintal and Brock Anderson.
Anderson is pleased.
“I’m happy to play where I’m from,” he said at the camp, explaining that for the last two years he has been working with Kelowna’s Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy.
He’s planning on a future in hockey and hopes playing in his hometown might help him toward that goal.
“I’d like to go as far as I can go,” he said. “We have a good coach. I’ve heard a lot of good things about him.”
Law said the team came out of the weekend with 27 players that have been invited back to take part in the upcoming exhibition games.
“Every exhibition game we’ll be making a couple more releases,” he said, explaining the team plans to trim the roster to a final 21 players.
KIJHL rules allow the team to carry 23 players but only 20 can dress for a game: 18 skaters and two goalies.
A maximum of two players can be 16 years old; each team is permitted eight imports (from the U.S. or elsewhere in Canada outside of B.C.) and a maximum of four 20-year-olds.
The Coyotes first exhibition games will be on September 3 and 4 against the Squamish Wolf Pack at the Sun Bowl Arena.
Start times are 7:35 p.m. and the admission cost is $5.
The concession will be open and Coyotes team merchandise will be available.
Those games will be followed by a Penticton game on Sept. 6 and a game in Princeton on Sept. 7.
In addition to the seven players that had been signed prior to the August camp, a few more were since chosen.
That brings the total number of confirmed players to 17 with local players including Anderson, Quintal and Oliver’s Stefan Jensen and Thierry Martine.
As players filter down from other leagues, like the Junior A league, the Coyotes’ roster will continue to be modified.
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