St. Thomas’s men’s hockey head coach, assistant coaches, and team players will begin offering hockey lessons to young players in Fredericton starting Oct. 05.
The hockey camp will be held at the Grant Harvey Centre Monday’s between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. for the next eight weeks.
“It’s a camp I see a lot of value in,” said Tommies assistant coach Andrew Connors. “Most kids that take part are between six and eight-years-old who play Timbits or Novice for the Fredericton Youth Hockey Association (FYHA).”
“It’s the youngest camp we have. They don’t get much ice-time, so when they get this hour with us, it helps them,” said Connors. “Extra time doesn’t hurt at that age.”
Connors and Tommies head coach Kyle McAllister work together to coach and organize the exercises, along with seven or eight Tommies, who act as coaches for the kids.
“It’s nice that young kids can come out with the Tommies at our place on our own home ice where the Tommies play,” said Connor. “I think parents and kids enjoy the interaction with the hockey players.
The training camp is aimed at addressing certain areas where the kids need improvement. They begin with warmup drills like puck handling, wave skating, power skating, starts, stops, crossovers and backwards skating.
“Then we divide the kids up in areas with different drill stations of different skills,” said Connor. “It’s usually five to seven minutes they spend at each station (with Tommies players), then they rotate to the next station and skill.”
The Tommies goalies are also involved in the training. They take the kids aside who are training to be goalies and do shooting drills with them in the net.
Last year’s camp had about 30 kids attend each night. So far there are only 15 registered this year, but numbers are expected to increase when the FYHA schedules are released.
Those in the camp have pre-hockey experience that varies per kid.
“There are some that are extremely new to hockey, some we get are very experienced,” said Connor.“That’s the beauty of it, we can work at a wide range of skills. It’s challenging (for them), from the new, to the experienced.”
Conner believes it’s an overall positive experience that builds on confidence and basic hockey skills.
“Their skating skills improve overall. At the end of the eight weeks they are skating backwards. The goal of the camp is to see an improvement at all skill levels,” he said.
At the end of the camps, “The kids become STU hockey fans. They form friendships and bonds with players and coaches. What we enjoy,” said Connor, “is getting to know these kids. They come to games and say ‘I skated with that player.’”
