Peace Area bringing the Grande Prairie back in the Storm
When the 3 year plan started with the Storm part of it was to bring more Grande Prairie Area players back to the Storm. In the early days the Storm were filled with local Peace area players and the team wanted to bring that back to the Storm. The 2 times the Storm have won the AJHL Championship local players filled the line up. In 2008-2009 there were 8 local players on the team with the top 6 scorers all being from the Peace area region. In 2003-2004 there were 7 local players on the teams that helped win the organizations first AJHL championship.
The team now begins the process of getting the locals back into the Storm. 20 games into the 2015 AJHL season local Peace Region players have played 70 man games for the team including active roster players and affiliates. In 2014-2015 locals played a total of 33 man games for the entire season.Last night the roster was filled with Peace Region players. Landon Vollman (Spirit River), Carter Wolski (Sexsmith), Tallon Kramer (Grande Prairie), Cruz Cote (Fahler), Logan Mazerolle (Grande Prairie), Reece Harsch (Grande Prairie) and Eric Sorensen (Grimshaw) all played a regular shift for the Storm.
Coach/GM Kevin Higo: ” Having the number of Peace region players increase has always been part of the plan. In the spring we had a specific Peace Region Spring Camp to identify local players that could play for the Storm. Then in August we had local Bantam and Midget Prep Camps to help players get ready for their upcoming try outs. We were able to make contact with those locals as well as get on the ice and work with them. As a staff we continue to attend GPAC development ice times, as well as have Midget AAA players attend our practices.”
