WEDNESDAY -- No Fool in Camrose

Got an interview with the coach of the Pontiacs Chad Mercier in this week where we talked Spring Camps and NE Panthers. Here's the transcript:

TRH: Hey Chad, haven't talked to you in a little while so it's nice to hear from you. Pontiacs Spring Camp ... I was getting all pumped up for this weekend but I hear there have been some changes.

CM: Yeah we made a decision last week, Robb, to combine the Calmar and the Bonnyville camps. I think we were working towards that over the years but this year we gave everyone the choice of which camp they wanted to come to and a high number, especially of the Edmonton area kids that are coming to our camp registered for the Bonnyville camp so it just left the numbers of the Calmar camp with kind of two and a half teams so from all end, the arena side of it, from our side of it we didn't feel it was worth doing it and it was nice to bring everyone into Bonnyville and it's nice to see the interest in people coming to Bonnyville.

TRH: Overall a pretty good response with people wanting to come to Pontiacs camp?

CM: Yeah. We are happy with the response. We like to keep our numbers to that 75-90 to keep it manageable so we get proper evaluation. Like I said, it's a bit of a pain for people in regards to us coming to Calmar and then for us to juggle it but at the end of the day to see the response to the kids that wanted to come to Bonnyville and we are looking forward to the camp.

TRH: Have you added some extra ice times or evaluators to the Bonnyville Camp?

CM: No, we are going to keep it at that 75-90 number and we were prepared for that kinda schedule and we prepare our evaluators accordingly . What's happened in the past, Robb, is that the Calmar camp and been the better attended camp and then the Bonnyville camp has been the lower attended camp just because of numbers coming out of this area so from an expense standpoint that's worked out very well. This year with the numbers being higher in Bonnyville than in Calmar there's a lot more expense in regards to holding a camp in Calmar and so it only made sense to combine the two from that side of it, plus we are going to make sure we are going to get any potential Bonnyville Pontiacs in to see our facility, to see our town and at the end of the day our decision moving forward is that if they don't want to come to Bonnyville to camp there's probably not a real good chance they are going to want to come and play here.

TRH: Let's talk about hockey that happened this past weekend. The NE Panthers went on quite the run and captured the RAMHL championship. I know there have been a number of Panthers that have graduated to play for your team over the years. What does it mean for this group of guys to be able to put this line on their resume that they have won something.

CM: That's really something that those guys will have for the rest of their lives and the rest of their hockey career that nobody's going to be able to take away from them. It's really a credit to the people, the coaching staff and the kids themselves to be able to come back after getting down 2-1 and to find a way to win the last 2 games in front of the home crowd. I think there are a lot of people behind the scenes with the board that's been created over the last year and like I said the guys in the trenches, the coaching but a a real credit goes to the kids and it's good to see and I'm sure they are proud of it and they should be proud of it and it's nice to see them have that success.

TRH: Having that success and learning how to win at this age help in the future?

CM: Yeah I think those are all great parts of the experience and especially the way they did it. I think they fought adversity and persevered and did it in fine fashion and really grabbed control of it. Those are great things and the town I'm sure is very proud and they should be proud of their efforts.

TRH: Thanks Chad

CM: Great, thanks Robb.
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What a great decision by Jeremy Biernes of the Camrose Kodiaks. From AJHL.ca:

The Camrose Kodiaks organization would like to congratulate Jeremy Beirnes for agreeing to terms to move to Australia and play professional hockey there. Jeremy leaves Canada on April 15th and he is excited about the opportunity ahead of him.

I think this is a great move. Different people have different priorities in life and Jeremy now gets to travel the world and play hockey. Good for him.

To Jeremy: I'm loving where I'm living right now but if you happen to hear of any play by play gigs along the Gold Coast be sure to let me know.

As for Hockey in Australia you will have to at some point play against New Zealand so watch out for this. Great video.

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I'm hitting the highway this afternoon to get to Game 1 tonight. I still have to work tomorrow morning but it's worth the lack of sleep.