Several hockey players with ties to the Cowichan Valley are hoping for invitations to the BC Hockey U16 boys and U18 girls provincial camps at Shawnigan Lake School this summer, with spots on Team B.C. at the Canada Winter Games on the line.
Players from across B.C. gathered in Salmon Arm in April for identification camps, and numbers will be cut down for the camps at Shawnigan in late July and early August.
Players from the Cowichan Valley invited to the U16 boys camp included Duncan’s Ben Brant (Pacific Coast Hockey Academy) and Braden Blace (Delta Hockey Academy), Ladysmith’s James Joyce (Cowichan Valley Minor Hockey Association), and Mill Bay’s Seiya Tanaka-Campbell (Shawnigan Lake School).
Other players from Shawnigan’s hockey academy included Kyler Lewis (Kelowna), Jayden Martin (Abbotsford) and Ross Roloson (Victoria).
The lone Cowichan Valley product in the U18 girls identification camp was Ladysmith’s Kamryn Grooms, who plays in the CVMHA, but several Shawnigan players were also in the mix, including goalies Colby Wilson (Fort St. James) and Kiara Stecko (Kelowna), defender Taylor Northcott (Prince Rupert) and forwards Megan Bouveur (Victoria), Mishayla Christensen (Prince George), Zosia Adamek (Victoria), Sarah Rourke (Smithers), Eva DeBaie (Victoria) and Gillian Moore (Merritt).
The summer camps at Shawnigan will take place on July 29-Aug. 3. The teams selected from those camps will compete at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alberta on Feb. 16-22.