NAHL’s Brown Bears return to “We’re not the only team (in the
Colorado for tryout camp By Brian McDonough
A
s the Kenai River Brown Bears continue to build on their recent
success in the North American Hockey League (NAHL), the Alaska club is re- turning to Colorado for a third straight summer for its Western Region Camp in hopes of attracting more local tal- ent.
The camp will run from
June 8-10 at Edge Ice Are- na in Littleton (see the ad- vertisement on Page 7 for details). “We’re coming back to
Colorado because we’ve had great camps there the last two years,” said Brown Bears head coach Oliver David. “Every year, players from that state have made our roster.” This past season, the Tier II Ju-
NAHL) making the effort to come to town in hopes of improving our club,” said David. “Colorado has always pro- duced elite hockey players.” And while Alaska - especially Ke-
nai River - might seem off the radar for Colorado prospects, geographically, the program prides itself on provid- ing a structured environment with an emphasis on community in- volvement. “Replace the freeways
Kellen Patrick
with the Kenai River that runs through town, and replace the buildings with mountains,” said David. “It’s an awesome experience and a great place to train to become a college hockey
player.” David added that the Kenai expe-
nior A team boasted four different Colorado natives over the course of the year - three of whom made the team through tryout camps: forwards Skyler McKnight (Castle Rock) and Nick O’Donnell (Westminster) and defenseman Kellen Patrick (High- land Ranch). The fourth, defenseman Jake Spinder (Arvada), was acquired through a trade.
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rience is a great fit for players who thrive in an intense training environ- ment and are looking to develop away from the distractions of home. “We want players who know what
they want: to play hockey beyond ju- niors,” he said. “We want to be a step- pingstone, preparing players to reach high altitudes in hockey, and we have a program in place that’s proven to do just that.”
USA Hockey National Camps await plenty of local players
P
lenty of Colorado boys and girls earned invites to this year’s USA Hockey National Player Develop- ment Camps after their perfor- mances at the Rocky Mountain District Player Development Camps, which were held earlier this month in Salt Lake City.
The dates and loca- tions for this summer’s
National Camps are: Boys Select 17: June 23-29 (Rochester, N.Y.); Boys Select 16: July 7-13 (Rochester); Boys Select 15: July 14-20 (Roches- ter); Girls Select 17: July 11-17 (St. Cloud, Minn.); Girls Select 16: July
11-17 (St. Cloud); Girls Select 15: July 20-26 (St. Cloud); Girls Select 14: July 20-26 (St. Cloud); Sled Hockey: July 7-19 (Rochester). All 1998-born boys selected from Colorado Amateur Hockey Associa- tion State Camp will compete at the Western Regional Multi- District High Performance Camp, along with other 98-borns from the Rocky Mountain, Northern Plains and Pacific Districts, from June 26-July 1 in Colorado Springs.
See a compete list of Colorado’s National Camp selections at CAHA.
PointstreakSites.com.
DePuydt tabbed new head coach of WSHL’s Jr. Bison
T
he Boulder Valley Hockey Foun- dation (BVHF) earlier this month
namedPaul DePuydt the new head coach and general man- ager of the Boulder Jr. Bison. DePuydt most recently
served as head coach of the Colorado Thunderbirds’ 18U AAA team, which this year won the Rocky Mountain District regional championship and advanced to the USA Hockey National Tournament.
“We’re extremely excited to have
Paul join our junior program in Boul- der,” said Dennis Hefter, BVHF president. “First and foremost, we were looking for a character guy and we found him in Paul.” Previously, DePuydt was an assistant coach at Minnesota’s St. Olaf College (MIAC), where he was in charge of player development, scouting and recruiting.
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