We brought some extra kids out here this weekend to see what they could do and a lot of the kids stepped up into important roles for the tournament.
鈥� Monte Taphorn
Sherring Gold Terrier Head Coach
The Yorkton Sherring Gold Peewee 鈥楢A鈥� Terriers held their annual home tournament this past weekend, welcoming the Estevan Westmoreland Bruins, Melville Millionaires, Brandon Major PeeWee Wheat Kings and Weyburn Youngfellows Wings to the Kinsmen Arena for three days of competitive hockey.
The Terriers went 1-2-1 over their four games, falling to the Millionaires 5-0 on Friday night in their tournament opening game before tying Brandon 2-2 Friday morning.
The Sherring Gold Terriers then dropped an 8-2 decision to Estevan Friday afternoon before picking up their lone win of the tournament with a 6-5 victory over Weyburn Friday evening. 鈥淥verall I鈥檓 happy with everyone鈥檚 effort out there and it was a good weekend,鈥� said Sherring Gold Terrier head coach Monte Taphorn, adding that the results aren鈥檛 that important seeing as the Terriers were using the tournament for tryouts. 鈥淲e brought some extra kids out here this weekend to see what they could do and a lot of the kids stepped up into important roles for the tournament.
鈥淲e really wanted to use this weekend as an evaluation process to determine what the best fit for our team will be and which kids will fit best with what we need to do and I think we figured that out.鈥�
Taphorn said that he and his coaching staff had a lot of work to do in regards to picking players for the team, as the vast majority of the players will be new to peewee 鈥楢A鈥� hockey with only three returning players slated to make the team. 鈥淲e have one goalie (Kael DePape) and two forwards (Kylen Taphorn and Rhys Maksimow) returning to the team this year so it鈥檚 certainly going to be a learning curve for many of the kids, but especially the first year kids that have never played 鈥楢A鈥� before,鈥� offered Taphorn, adding that he expects the veterans to lead the way with their attitude. 鈥淗opefully the vets will push each other as well as the new guys. We need them to be the leaders on the team, not just offensively but in the locker room as well.鈥�
The Sherring Gold head coach also mentioned that the kids will have to be prepared for every team鈥檚 best effort every game, due to the Terriers being the defending five-time league champions. 鈥淲e definitely have a bullseye on our backs and because of that we definitely have to work harder this year and outwork the teams so that鈥檚 going to be our focus early on.鈥�
The Sherring Gold Terriers will officially open their 2015/16 SSMHL Peewee 鈥楢A鈥� Division regular season on the weekend of October 10 and 11 with a pair of home games against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
