Westlock’s Tier 5 Midget Warriors have had some struggles in the first half of the season, culminating in a trio of losses Dec. 19-21 to finish 2014.
Coach Doug Schiller is nonetheless optimistic about how the season will progress, saying the vast majority of the trouble so far has come due to the age-level on the team.
“I think we could see some better play,” he said. “We’ve got a young team there and they’re having some trouble adjusting to the midget level but they’re coming along pretty good.”
More than half the team is players who are in their first year at the midget level, with another four who are bantam players playing in the higher age group. The difference between bantam hockey and midget hockey, Schiller said, is very significant.
“You’re going from boys to men, really, size-wise,” he said. “You get some pretty big boys by the time they hit 16 and 17 years old.”
There is no lack of talent on the team, with every team the Warriors play against being beatable if the Warriors are on their game. Unfortunately, the team has had some discipline problems so far this year.
“The discipline has to be there; I don’t know if you can even teach discipline,” Schiller said. “It’s either there or it’s not; that’s a tough one.”
The lack of discipline has been most apparent in terms of penalty minutes — while the Warriors are roughly halfway up the standings in terms of points they have a clear lead when it comes to penalty minutes. Westlock has 367 so far compared to 222 for the next-highest team.
Schiller said a significant portion of those penalties come from the Warriors giving a push here or a shove there after they’ve been fouled.
“You could probably take about half of those penalty minutes, and they’re just retaliatory penalties,” he said.
At the end of the day, though, the team is full of kids who are playing a game — and since they’re having a whole lot of fun doing it, the rest doesn’t matter too much.
“I think the boys are having a good time and us coaches are definitely having a good time,” Schiller said.
The Warriors will begin 2015 with another three-game weekend, with a weekend tournament coming halfway through the month, so there is plenty of opportunity to get back on track.
“I think the boys are going to come together for us,” he said. “They’re working on it, so I see good things in the future.”
