Camps trained 32 young women and men
The University of Guelph held the first Aboriginal high performance hockey camps from August 11 to 13. In interviews with The Ontarion the organizers of the camps all agreed that the camps went great! Shawn Camp, head coach of the men’s hockey team, stated that “We had so much fun this weekend with the kids, and the camp went very, very well.”
The camps had 17 women and 15 men between the ages of 14 and 18.The men’s and women’s camps were run differently since the respective coaches for each camp planned the training. Still, both camps had many similarities such as the same number of hours on the ice, strength and conditioning training, video work, and sessions on nutrition.
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A difference between the camps was that the men’s camp focused on mental training while the women’s camp focused on where women could go with hockey.
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The camps focused on educational information, making sure to teach skills that apply to everyday life. The men’s coach hopes these skills will “become excellent daily habits.” Quincy Sickles-Jarvis, a Gryphon basketball player who assisted with the camp, noted that they are “good habits to start when you’re young.”
One aspect of the camp that both coaches found important was the ability for these players to see role models.Rachel Flanagan, head coach of the women’s hockey team, noted that “it’s nice for [the players] from a leadership standpoint to see that these are roles down the road.”Camp stated that those helping out with the training “don’t just talk the talk, you walk the walk,” which is important for these players to see.
Although the hockey teams have run high performance camps in the past, most have been for local players. Camp stated that having an Aboriginal high performance training camp is “critical, because so many of the kids in Ontario, they’re as good as any player anywhere else, they simply don’t have the opportunity to utilize the resources that we have here.”
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Attending high performance training camps has a “really positive impact for all of [the players],” noted Sickles-Jarvis. Katie Mora, the assistant coach for the women’s hockey team, noted that the camp “exposed all the athletes to things that they’re maybe not accustomed to every day.” This includes top-notch coaching, which these players may not get at home.
Overall, Camp noted that the training camps are a “great learning experience for the kids.”Keir Johnston, the high performance coordinator with the Aboriginal Sport & Wellness Council of Ontario, stated that “experiencing going to university, seeing what it takes to play at [the university] level really opens up your eyes.”Additionally, the camps allow the athletes to realize “they are so much closer to this level than they understand,” said Camp.
The coaches noticed that there was a lot of improvement in the players’ abilities over the weekend. There were “big gains on the ice in a short time,” said Flanagan. Sickles-Jarvis saw changes in the way the players opened up more, interacted more, and were more confident.
Camp found that the “quality and volume of work that [the players] did was really impressive.” Flanagan found that the players were “super receptive to our coaching.”
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Although hockey was the first high performance training camp, Johnston stated that “we’re going to do other sports.” Camp enthusiastically discussed his wanting to do this again.
Camp also discussed the recruitment aspect of the training camp, noting that the coaches have “identified and recognized some of the players that will certainly be able to play at the university level in the years coming. And so, we want to track those young guys and see how they develop, and help them in any way we can.”Camp stated that he wants Guelph “to be the elite training center for all of the Aboriginal teams that are representing Ontario.”Additionally, he wants the Gryphon men’s hockey “team to be more diverse” and hopes some of the players from the camps choose to play at the University of Guelph.
Photo by Tasha Falconer