Three years later, seven teammates from the last Westlock minor hockey team to host a provincial tournament are teaming up again in hopes of bringing provincial glory to town.
In March 2011, the Westlock Atom Selects won Zone 3, and had the honour of carrying the zone banner into the old Jubilee Arena for the Atom ‘B’ provincial tournament.
Now three years older, seven members of that team are preparing to play host to bantam teams from across the province as the Westlock Bantam ‘A’ Warriors get set to host the Bantam ‘B’ provincials this weekend at the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre.
Those returning players, a unique group that were part of the last major tournament at Jubilee and the first at the Spirit Centre, are Jared Boss, Sheldon McCoy, Thomas Schwarz, Braydie Teszeri, Ethan Vekved, Curtis Vesely and Wyatt Victoor.
“It’s definitely great hosting,” Vekved said. “It feels pretty good not having to go somewhere.”
Being the hosting team comes with a number of perks, not least of which is a near guarantee that the arena will be filled with more fans cheering for the home side than the opposition — at least when the home side is playing.
There are two sides to having a large home crowd, however. On the one hand, it’s nice to have people cheering for you.
On the other, there is pressure to perform.
Fortunately, Westlock’s returning players aren’t too concerned about any overbearing pressure.
“It’s cool to be at home and have the home-team advantage,” Vesely said. “Hopefully there’ll be lots of family and friends supporting us and they’ll be loud.”
Victoor added he feels the pressure will be there, but it won’t be too big a deal.
“The pressure won’t affect us much,” he said. “There’s always pressure when you host, so you have to focus on your game.”
Of the returning players, only McCoy admitted the pressure playing at home could generate nervous feelings.
Even then, however, that’s not really a bad thing.
“I’ll be pretty nervous, I think, but it’s a good nervous,” he said.
This year’s squad is entering the provincial tournament having posted a 15-1-4 record in regular season play in the 1660 League’s Bantam Tier 4, which is seven points better than the second-place team.
Despite the strong record, the Warriors have their work cut out for them, as they were eliminated early in the provincial playdowns and earned their berth as the host team.
It’s that mix of results heading into the tournament that leaves the door wide open when it comes to how well they’ll do at home.
“Hopefully we’ll do pretty good,” Vekved said. “There will be good teams here, but if we play 100 per cent, we should do good.”
McCoy, for his part, referenced the puck luck often involved in tournaments like provincials.
“I hope we do good, but anything can happen,” he said.
Schwarz took a different approach to handicapping his team’s chances.
“We haven’t seen the teams at provincials, but I hope we match up,” he said.
As previously mentioned, this is the first major tournament at the Spirit Centre, and one that features seven players who skated at Jubilee’s last major competition. While the novelty of that unique quirk isn’t top of mind for all the players, some did acknowledge it.
“I like being the last at Jubilee and first at the Spirit Centre,” Vekved said. “It’s definitely cool.”
Vesely took the news about ending one era and beginning another as a challenge.
“We ended one rink and hopefully we’ll hang the first banner here,” he said.
While whether or not the Warriors get to hang the first new banner at the Spirit Centre is up to them, having a large crowd cheering them on certainly won’t hurt.
Boss had a simple message to friends, family and random citizens all over Westlock.
“Everyone should come out,” he said.
Admission to all tournament games is free, thanks to a new Hockey Alberta initiative that sees teams prepay for admission, said Warriors team manager Brenda Teszeri.
This means anyone who wants to attend a game can simply walk into the arena and grab a seat.
As well in order to make the tournament run smoothly, a whole host of volunteers is needed.
However, the organizing committee continues to hunt for bodies to fill any number of roles. Anyone interested in volunteering is asked to call Teszeri at 780-349-8077.
