Powell River Minor Hockey League product Hunter Findlater, 15, has officially joined the elite young players of BC.
The BC Hockey Male High Performance program was introduced in 1980 with the mandate to systematically identify and train the province’s elite-level players for high performance hockey sporting events. The overall objective of the program is to increase the chances of athletes from BC to compete provincially, nationally and internationally, with the ultimate goal of being selected for Canada’s National Junior or Senior team.
The process for Findlater began with registration to attend the Vancouver Island-Central Coast regional camp held at Lake Cowichan from March 30 to April 1.
He was up against 110 players competing for one of 40 spots to move on in the selection process.
“I had a great camp,” said Findlater, “and just did what the coaches told me to do. They told me to be a lot more physical and to get in the corners and so I did that. I didn’t really think that I could make it that far, just by doing what people tell me to do.”
After the camp was over the selection committee convened in the stands and called the players up one by one.
“I was really scared,” he said. “I could barely walk there. They told me I had a good weekend and they told me about all of my strengths. Then they told me about my weaknesses,” and he admitted to bracing for the worst when they said, “‘Okay, you’ve been selected to the Under 16 BC Cup.’ I ran out to the car and no one was there so I went back into the arena and my mom was there and when I told her she started screaming. That was really embarrassing,” he said, “but she was really excited.”
He made the trip with his parents,Tyler and Theresa, to Kelowna for the BC Cup where upon arrival he said goodbye to them and his cellphone to join 159 other hockey hopefuls.
It was a big step for the young player and his mother recalled, “He was really nervous and excited.” Not surprising, his mom said, because, “We only see island kids during the season and we might play 13 league games and a couple of tournaments. Most of the other kids probably play close to 80 to 90 games a season.”
From April 12 to 15 Findlater slept, ate and played hockey with 19 new teammates on his new team, the Flyers, and lived with 140 opponents in a high school gymnasium.
“It was comfortable,” he said of dormitory life, “but it was hard to sleep with 160 kids and all of the snoring.”
Getting a good night’s rest was important to be ready for the high level of competition and scrutiny of an army of scouts who were in attendance.
Parents had to sit on one side of Royal LePage Arena while hundreds of Western Hockey League scouts were on the other side.
“It was quite the scene to see all of those black coats,” said Theresa in awe for her son, “and to know that they were all there to see you. We were all very nervous.”
None of the “black coats” were allowed to communicate with any of the players at the camp.
The Flyers turned out to be a tight defensive unit and fared very well in the tournament of eight teams.
“We could have made the finals in the tournament,” said Findlater, “but it came down to goals for and against and the other team had more goals.”
He felt good about his performance saying, “It was really hard playing against the top kids in the province but I just tried my best to impress all the people there. I think I did pretty good, but there was lots of talent there and lots of people to choose from.”
When asked about his chances of moving on, he said “I don’t know, they will tell us next week.”
Either way the experience has been a good one for Findlater who is determined to be successful. “I’m just going to keep working hard and try to make it to the next level.”
