By Ryan Laverty /
Most kids their age might strap on some Nike’s and head out the door with a stack of newspapers to deliver. Pretty typical job for a nine or 10-year-old, really.
But for the 18 members of Team Brick Alberta this summer, their job was hockey, their boss was Eric Morrissette, and their footwear? Big, heavy work boots.
“It was something we had the kids do every time they came to the rink this year because the idea was we were going to work,” said Morrissette, who just finished up his third year behind Brick Alberta’s bench. “That was the attitude we wanted them to have and I think they got it.”
Hard to argue that after Brick Alberta dumped the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in the championship final at the 19th Annual Brick Invitational Super Novice Hockey Tournament on July 6 at West Edmonton Mall.
Thanks to a late goal by Sylvan Lake’s Tyler Steenbergen, who was also selected as a first-team all-star at the tournament, Brick Alberta captured their second Brick Tournament championship in three years.
No small feat in and of itself, but considering the squad was only together for three weeks prior to the July 2 tournament start date, it was all the more impressive.
“The selection process really is a 12-month process,” explained Morrissette, noting that this year’s team was made of players from Medicine Hat to Lloydminster and everywhere in between. “But we knew that our time together this year was going to be very tight, so when I evaluated these kids the first thing I looked at was smarts. Obviously they had to be talented, but they had to be able to pick things up in a hurry if we were going to be successful.”
Morrissette, who makes his living training elite hockey players, said that as much as he believed he’d picked a team with talent, he didn’t have a sense as to how successful they’d be at the summer’s big dance until they skated away with the title at the Subway Classic Tournament in Winnipeg June 15.
“Once I saw the way they picked things up in Winnipeg I knew we had a shot,” he said.
But with 12 teams of the top North American Novice players all showing up in the City of Champions at once, a shot didn’t necessarily mean another championship for Morrissette’s charges. No, that really came down to the work boots.
“One of the cornerstones to success is hard work, so if we weren’t having success we’d have to ask ourselves ‘were we out-working the other team,’” Morrissette said. “But when it came down to it, we just told the kids to go out and do what they’re good at and that’s play. We told them to concentrate on the performance and the results would come and I think they saw that.”
In addition to Steenbergen, Brick Alberta goaltender Matthew Murray was selected as a first-team tournament all-star and defenceman Kale Clague was named to the second-team. |
