Hockey camp looks to make balanced athletes

By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – The Town of Morinville, Sturgeon Hockey Club, Morinville Jets and Senior AA Kings are partnering this month to bring a hockey camp to town. The camp, running from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 at the Ray McDonald Sport Centre, promises to get players properly prepared to hit the ice this fall.

Tyler Edworthy , Morinville’s Operations and Program Coordinator, said the camp will cover a variety of aspects, including the fundamentals of hockey, skills development, conditioning, respect in sport, dry-land training and proper nutrition, the latter a new component of the program “We’re going to incorporate the Choose Well Initiative into this camp,” Edworthy said. “I’m actually working with Alberta Health Services to get a speaker out to explain how healthy eating affects your body. That’s going to be a new component that we just added recently.” Parents will also be invited to take part in the nutrition portion of the camp, which will take place over a lunch hour.

But beyond looking at what goes into an athlete’s body, the camp will expect a little out of an athlete’s body. Edworthy said Lara Thompson of Pure Physique has been brought onboard to provide age-specific dry-land training.

Needed program

Edworthy said there have been many requests to host this kind of camp for several years. This summer’s program is the first of what he hopes will be an annual event. Last year’s plans were hindered by problems with the arena’s ice making equipment.

The plan for the three-day camp is to have two age-specific camps running side by side each day, alternating on and off ice. If there are enough registrations, organizers are looking to do a three camp split of 8 to11, 12 to14, and 15 and above. Cost of the program is $150 per player.

Edworthy is happy to see the program going forward and happy to see a four-way partnership in making it happen. “It’s going to be about personal development,” he said. “It’ll incorporate power skating, basic practice in skills, puck handling, skating, and then we’ll have a modified scrimmage. They’ll actually be applying the skills they are learning in the camp.”

The Operations and Program Coordinator said the camp falls in line with the direction Morinville is going with sport in the community – an effort to make Morinville’s players and teams the best they can be. “It follows the Canadian Sport For Life model and the long-term athlete development program,” Edworthy said. “We want to make sure the athletes we are developing here in town are given the skills and ability to go as far as they need to, making sure they are reaching their personal best.”

For more information on this summer’s hockey camp, contact Tyler Edworthy at 780-939-7834 or 780-939-7839. Those interested in registering can also do so online through the town of Morinville’s website.

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