Despite another year of turnover, the Midget AAA Moose Jaw Generals should be an exciting team to watch this season.
There are still six players away at either Western Hockey League or Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League camps, but the Generals are feeling confident heading into Sunday’s first pre-season game (7 p.m., Mosaic Place) against the Regina Pat Canadians.
“We still have a few players away, but for the most part, we have a pretty good idea about who is coming back and who won’t be,” said Ray Wareham, head coach of the Generals. “We will have four or five 1998 born kids that are coming to play. It probably won’t be much of our roster in those lineups, but it should be good experience for those younger guys.”
The team started practicing on Tuesday and the players set a good tempo and looked good and comfortable with the systems and plays. Despite another year of high turnover due to players graduating from the Midget AAA system, the coaching staff was prepared for another season of re-teaching the young athletes.
“We feel good and we’ve had some practices this week and it has been a great three days. The kids have been flying out there and good tempo,” said Wareham. “We have a fairly big turnover again this year, for lots of re-teaching. It will be exciting now to go into a game situation and see how they respond.”
Although missing six players could impact the team in the pre-season, the experience they are gaining at the other camps and teams will only benefit the Generals when they return to the team
“Just to get that experience and those are high end players to be able to stay that long. Just the little bit that they can take out of the dressing rooms with their respective teams they have been with and bring that back to us is only going to help us,” he said.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
