Young hockey players from the Torquay and Alameda areas worked on their skills during on-ice and classroom sessions at a clinic held in Torquay on Nov. 23 and 24.
The clinic happened thanks to a grant from the Adam Herold Legacy Foundation. Herold was the youngest person killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy in April 2018. The Montmartre product was 16 at the time of the collision, and a foundation was created in his honour to help young athletes develop and refine their hockey skills and their leadership potential.
“We probably had 70 kids from Torquay and Alameda areas, and it was a really well run clinic,” said Rodney Phillips, who was one of the organizers of the clinic.
The players who attended the camp in Torquay will also attend a session in Alameda on Jan. 11 and 12, 2020, allowing them to develop their skills even more.
“It would be nice to have more of these clinics, for sure, working on their skills and off-ice team building and things like that. It was great,” said Phillips.
Players were separated into groups and dedicated time to off-ice team building, dryland training, power skating and other important parts of the game.
“I thought the kids did a great job of listening with some younger groups, and they all bought into these instructors, and it benefitted them a lot,” he said.
Instructors included Blaine Duffield, who helped with the training sessions, Jordan Brisbois for power skating, Mike Blaisbell and Jordan Reeve for off-ice shooting skills, and Mike Dumelie for video sessions.
Members of the Herold family were also in attendance for the camp.
Phillips noted that Nicki Berg did a lot of work to make the camp happen. She was the one who applied to the foundation, and without her, the camp likely wouldn’t have happened.
Berg pointed out the program brings in top resources with the expectation that a community will provide the economic support it can afford, versus the full cost of the program, with the remainder being subsidized from the resources of the foundation. The intent of the program is not to provide the services for free but in a cost-effective and reasonable manner.
