Trevor Hanley of Martensville is a familiar name with the Minor Hockey Association (MHA). With 13 years of coaching experience at the U18 level, he is excited to begin the AA camp which starts the weekend of September 11, with the intent to have a team selected by September 16.
The SHA (Saskatchewan Hockey Association) has been working with the Sask Health Authority and the Provincial Government and have released their return to hockey memorandum earlier in August. Hanley states that this Return to Hockey Plan outlines many of the parameters and intentions in place today. “We are moving ahead with camps and towards selecting our teams; however there are no games being sanctioned at this time by Sask Hockey. Tentatively it looks like November 1, 2020 is the expected start of games being allowed. Tournaments have been set back to January 1, 2021 as a tentative start date.”
The Saskatchewan AA Hockey League (SAAHL) teams are made up of players living in the “AA” community or nearest to that community. Four major cities cannot draw players from outside their cities; Regina, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and Saskatoon for male; Saskatoon and Regina for female.
Hanley’s focus for this season will be on skill development for the players as a team and preparing as best they can for when they will be allowed to play games again. “There are some allowances within the Open Sask Plan for mini-leagues which, if things go well, may mean an exhibition game or two along the way which I know would be welcomed by the players.”
Hanley is very excited to be joined by Brett Boehm and Brennen Bosovich who have signed on as Assistant Coaches. “Both are great hockey guys who played right in Martensville growing up and both went on to play some very competitive hockey in the SAAHL and SJHL. I actually had the pleasure of coaching Brennen in ’07 so it’s pretty cool to now have an opportunity to coach alongside him.”
Having a lot of passion for the game, Hanley knows both Boehm and Bosovich are going to be great mentors for the boys. “Both jumped at the chance to give back to minor hockey through coaching so it speaks volumes about their character too.”
According to Hanley, they have a lot of talented players signed up for camp and he is looking forward to seeing them all compete and show their skills. “We’re all excited to get on the ice and get to work and right now it looks like every player at camp has a desire to play at the next level, with many having attended AAA U18 camps already. As coaches we’re going to do everything we can to get them prepared to make that jump.”
For more information on the rules and guidelines for the upcoming hockey season go to https://sha.sk.ca/news/archives/return-to-hockey-saskatchewan-hockey-association
PHOTO CAPTION: Above Coach Trevor Hanley with Assistant Coaches Brennan Bosovich and Brett Boehm