A Terrace midget rep hockey player has made it past the first round of evaluations at the U17 high performance camp in Prince George.
Colten Braid was the only player from Terrace invited to the camp, which was held April 8-10.
Scott Westgate, district evaluator for the northwest zone said a total of 46 players were invited, 33 of whom decided to take part, from an area stretching from 100 Mile House to Whitehorse.
“I feel lucky that I get to have an opportunity like this,” Braid said, who also participated in the U16 BC Cup last year.
“U16 last year was pretty fun,” Braid said. “You meet a lot of new people, and it’s just such a high level of hockey.”
He said tryouts for the U17 were pretty intense with a lot of hard skating and lots of ice time.
Selections for the U17 are a tougher process than for the U16 team.
“The zone is twice as big and we probably take half as many kids,” Westgate said.
A total of 20 players are selected from the northern zone. They are now gearing up to join 100 other players from across the province for a jamboree-style tournament in Salmon Arm May 12-15.
“It’s kind of a neat thing,” said Colten’s father Sean Braid. “It’s very regimented – they all eat together, sleep together, they never leave the rink during that time except to go for a run.”
After the Salmon Arm tournament players will be cut down to 23 who will join up with Albertan U17’s for another camp in Calgary this August.
From there they will be shortlisted again, and the remaining players will be followed during their regular hockey season until Nov. 15, when 11 of them will be chosen to represent the B.C. half of Team Pacific.
Team Pacific will represent Alberta and B.C. at the U17 World Hockey Challenge, in Winnipeg on Dec. 26.
“It’s a world tournament, there will be international teams there,” Westgate said, adding they will be playing against teams from the Czech Republic, the United States, Russia, Sweden and Finland among others.
“It’s quite the process and for a player to get to Winnipeg, he’s a pretty good hockey player,” Westgate said.
