Mighty Midgets Roar For The Rockies

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By Pam Jones, Editor
This year's High Country Rockies Midget A Hockey team has an amazing new coach. Hailing from King City, Ontario, Jeff Ovens has a hockey background and a love for hockey that is tangible. His classroom at Oilfields High School is a testament to his love of the sport.
Jeff was a five-year Captain of the Golden Gaels Hockey Team at Queens University where his Head Coach Brett Gibson said, “Jeff Ovens was the ultimate captain. … He was like a second assistant coach to me.”
Coach Jeff Oven's believes that coaches are teachers and that relationships are everything. “No-one is going to care how much you know until they know how much you care,” said Jeff at the team's first meeting.
He runs a tight ship with fairness and understanding. He has rules and some are non-negotiable but he is flexible and believes that respect is earned not demanded; and that applies to everyone ~ players, coaches, staff.
Team building is essential and there will be mandatory team building activities. Commitment is #1 in his book and a close second is how hard the team practices and plays their games. He is aiming for a professional culture, setting the guys up for their future lives, the team's goals will come first and commitment is all encompassing from the games, to practices, workshops, their dress code, punctuality and conduct.
He welcomed his team as the elite players of this division, congratulated them all and stressed that he had purposely stayed away from the try-outs letting the evaluators do their job of choosing his team. He went on to say that he was pleased with their choices and had two Golden Rules for them ~ 1) Be a fan and 2) Be a student of the game.
Jeff is also a teacher at Oilfields High School this year running their Hockey Canada Skills Academy Program and the Quest Program. He has three degrees, BSc, MSc, BEd and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.
Joining Jeff in coaching the Midget A team are Assistant Coaches Joel Turcotte and Bill Goss. Debbie Piquette Roney is Team Manager and Kevin Younkers is her assistant.
This year’s team consists of:
Goalies
1 - Colton Briggs
31 - Riley Younker
Defence
3 - Coltin Berard
4 - Alex Brassard
6 - Cody Goss
9 - Tanner Russell
14 - Cole Ouellette
18 - Geoff Wieler
Forward
2 - Justin Jones
5 - Konnor Dixon
7 - Kevin Ball
8 - Colten Lefthand
10 - Ty Bond
11 - Calvin Crighton
12 - Tanner Tymstra
15 - Dylan Klopp
16 - Dylan Bosak
17 - Wyatt Little Chief
19 - Blake Roney
20 - Ryden Brogden
These guys play some amazing hockey and their first two games saw them beat Okotoks 7 to 0 and Airdrie 7 to 3. However, Coach Jeff responded to this with, “It is important to really emphasis that we don’t play to the score clock. The Team’s success is going to depend on them getting out of their comfort zone and applying new skills. Our goal is to get better each and every day both as individuals and as a team.”
Their next home game will be on Sunday, November 14th at 3:45 pm at Oilfields Arena in Black Diamond. Please come out and support these dedicated young men ~ they play great hockey!

PS.  The food at the concession is great, too!

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