For most kids, spending a week at a mall would be a cool thing but for a young Estevan hockey player it’ll be an extra special event.
Defenceman Carson Deichert, 10, was selected for the Team Saskatchewan entry at this year’s Brick Invitational Hockey tournament at the West Edmonton Mall July 2-8.
Nealry 70 kids tried out for the Brick team last September and about 30 of them were cut that weekend. He survived those cuts and moved on to later in the month. Another set of cuts later and Deichert was still one of the 20 kids left on the team.
At a tournament in Regina in January, the dream was kept alive after Deichert cracked the final evaluation.
“He found out in the beginning of February that he made the Brick team,” said Trevor Deichert.
“What the coaches are looking for is… skill and team play. How they act on and off the ice,” Trevor Deichert said. “They are focusing on what kind of person they’re picking for their team too.”
Carson was able to show that to the people selecting the team and he has been very busy already this spring with a few tournaments with Team Saskatchewan.
The first set of practices started April 7 and was pretty intense, Trevor Deichert said.
“Any time there’s not a tournament they’re practicing every other weekend,” he said. “They alternate between Regina and Saskatoon practices and every weekend it’s four practices, so two on Saturday and two on Sunday.”
There are four tournaments on this team’s schedule before the Brick tournament, and have done the Alberta Cup challenge in Edmonton and placed third. A few weeks ago they won the City of Bridges tournament in Saskatoon.
June 2-4, they took part in the Regina Hockey Classic where they went 2-1-1 in four games and placed second.
Then in the middle of this month there’s the North American Hockey Classic in Winnipeg to round out their pre-Brick events.
“All the teams that will be in this will be in the Brick tournament so it’ll be a good idea for what they’ll be seeing at the tournament in July,” Trevor Deichert said.
Many of the top young players in the province can trace their first elite tournament experience to the Brick Invitational and Team Saskatchewan, and soon Carson will add his name to the list of athletes who’ve began a journey there.
“He loves hockey and he enjoys playing at this level of hockey and enjoying meeting all these new kids and the friendships he’s developing,” Trevor Deichert said. “He really enjoys learning more about the game and through all the practices and the coaching he’s getting over the years, but his talk isn’t the NHL. Right now in this day and time he’s just really enjoying the game of hockey. Any chance that he can play at the higher level, he’s all over that.”
When Trevor and Erin Deichert told Carson about the Brick tryout, he was excited about it and it was what he wanted to do, Trevor said. Carson is a defenceman but can move to forward with little issue.
“He’s been asked to play both positions and when he’s been asked to play defence in certain situations, he’s that kid they can grab and pull him from forward to defence,” Trevor Deichert said. “He started out the year on offence but the coaches saw a spot for him on defence and they made a move to put him on defence.”
With Carson enjoying the experience as much as he is, it makes it a little easier on Trevor and Erin.
“It’s a big commitment not only on Carson’s schedule but ours, too,” he said. “Between my wife and I we don’t like missing but at the same time we have another kid at home and we try to switch up the weekends when we take him. Of course when there’s tournaments, as a family we all go…
“But if he didn’t enjoy this, we wouldn’t be doing it.”
