The Humboldt Broncos hosted their annual spring camp Apr. 22-24 at the Elgar Peterson Arena.
The camp hosted approximately 136 hockey players from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Players were broken up into eight teams and played a series of games against other teams throughout the three day camp.
At the conclusion of the three-day camp the top 40 players were broken up into two teams to play a green and gold game. The game featured players born between 1997 and 2001.
Broncos Head Coach, Darcy Haugan, was very pleased with how the weekend went and said it was especially nice for him since this was his first spring camp.
He said the camp was a great opportunity to evaluate the players both on and off the ice and was a great opportunity for the players and their families to evaluate the coaches, organization, and community as well.
Haugan was especially impressed with the players off the ice for the most part saying that he received a lot of positive feedback.
“The common comment back was how good of kids they were as far as people and just my interactions with the parents it was a very pleasant weekend. Sometimes it can be a little hairy but we were very pleased with how polite they were and how good they were in the community.”
There were a number of players from the Humboldt Minor Hockey Association that took part in the weekend with a number of them even making the top 40 game.
Haugan said it was nice to be able to see those players play again after the fantastic season most of them enjoyed and was nice to get to know them a little bit on a personal level as well, saying it is hard to quantify how meaningful that is.
There were also a number of scouts in the stands from various Junior B organizations from throughout the area as well. Haugan says it gives him an opportunity to build some relationships with them as well.
“Everybody’s always welcome and we want to try to build as many relationships as we can with the people that are in our industry.”
Coming from a Junior B program himself, Haugan says he understands what it is like being in their shoes.
“A lot of them are volunteers, a lot of them are paying for their way up here.”
Throughout the course of the camp 11 of the player’s from last year’s team came back to town to help out with the camp, which was a big part of making the camp a success, says Haugan.
“You combine that with ten different scouts, plus the board members that are helping out…we had some young kids helping us with the water bottles and then my wife just providing food for all the players and for the Broncos that are back and all the volunteers and scouts.”
Haugan was really pleased with the amount of support he received from the community, saying it was because of their support that the weekend was so successful.
“So much of this doesn’t happen without being surrounded by good people and that’s the one thing I’ve noticed about Humboldt is we’ve got a lot of good people here.”
The Broncos staff now has to whittle their list down by Jun. 1 to the players that they want to commit to and then they get ready for training camp in the fall.
“We think we’re going to have a very competitive camp so we’re very excited, just a small part of where we need to go as an organization.”
