A news release from the Major Midget Kootenay Ice announced today that the team will continue on for the 2009-10 season. Even in their own press release the Ice admitted the upcoming season was in doubt. It's tough to make this program work in a sparsely populated and geographically large region. We're not talking about a bunch of Vancouver kids driving to practice with their parents. Since the ice are based in the West Kootenay any players from the East Kootenay end up having to billet for the season. We also have a lot of popular KIJHL teams and lower tier midget teams for them to compete for players with. The deck is stacked against having a winning team.
That being said, the main reason to continue on with the program is so our region's players can develop against the top talent in the province. We've seen some terrific players come out of the Major Midget program over its' brief existence. The 06-07 team included current Smokies Justin Brown and Steve Koshey, Williams Lake forward Anthony DeLong, Logan Proulx of the WHL's Edmonton Oil Kings and several players who have played at least in the KIJHL. The 07-08 team included current Smokies Travis St. Denis and Sam Mellor, new Vee Isaac MacLeod, DeLong again and several players who moved on to the KIJHL. For a team with so few wins that's a pretty decent success rate. Former Ice Head Coach Jake Postnikoff deserves a lot of credit for working hard with what he had and helping those players along.
Now the Ice are turning their team over to Nelson's Brent Petrick. He has several years of Rep level coaching experience and took the West Kootenay Female Midget AAA team to a Provincial Championship in 2007.
Good luck to Brent. I hope he can continue to produce some great talent for the future of our local teams. Anyone interested in their camp can register by getting the form off the Major Midget website.
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