SAHA looks to build off successful first year

By JAMES TUBB on August 31, 2022.

The South Alberta Hockey Academy is up and running for what will be the hockey school’s first full season.

Some of SAHA’s male and female hockey players for the 2022-23 season got their first day of school at Eagle Butte High School and time on the ice over with on Monday as the Dunmore-based academy looks to build off its strong seasons on the ice. This season will mark SAHA’s first campaign not plagued with COVID-19 as their debut in 2020 was put to a halt and they were not able to travel for games as much in 2021-22.

The SAHA U18 men’s team enters the Canadian Sport School regular season coming off of a 21-11-4-1 record last year. Head coach Brayden Desjardins said he’s looking forward to his players getting the chance to get the full CSSHL experience.

“Being able to play in B.C., we have a couple of showcases in B.C. and just being able to play everybody a little last year, we were kind of locked into the playing just our side,” Desjardins said. “So just to be able to see everybody and get the whole experience will be super exciting for our program.”

The SAHA men’s team also enters the season on a high after winning the Mac’s invitational tournament in mid-April, becoming the first hockey school to win the international tournament and doing so in their first appearance. Desjardins said the team they had last season was a special one which handled adversity well and he looks forward to them competing at the tournament this year.

“We lost two guys to junior programs in the middle of the year and for our guys to be able to win something like the Mac’s, obviously a little bit short staffed was really exciting. So just trying to pick up from where we left off of last season, trying to leave our mark every year,” Desjardins said. “Our short-term goal is to have a good showing at the Mac’s again this upcoming year as we have an automatic bid. Once we get our guys here and everyone settled, let’s build off of it, let’s have a good try and repeat and then we’ll see what happens from there.”

Desjardins said his players are slowly trickling in as WHL and Junior A camps are getting underway around the hockey world. He said he’s already looking forward to working with the whole team once it comes together as they have less than a month to work together before their first game on Sept. 30. against the Edge School.

“It’s super exciting, guys are excited to come in here. There’s a little bit of prestige behind the program obviously with the Mac’s win, and our guys are super excited to be here and they’re ready to work. I think our culture so far has been really good. I was really excited to see the guys out at Eagle Butte, how they kind of meshed with the school and being from different parts of Canada. It was good,” Desjardins said.

“We have some pretty high-end players like the (Gavin) McKenna kid, he’s pretty special. Being a first overall pick, you’re always excited to see guys like that. I’ve worked with a ton of kids from the Hat too, like Josiah Jackson, he’s always been a kid I’ve wanted to coach. He’s the captain of the U15 team last season. I liked what I saw from him the last couple of days. Just being able to work with our local guys is super exciting and making sure they get the exposure they deserve because Medicine Hat is a good hockey town, we have good coaches in minor hockey and they’ve done a really good job developing these guys. So for us to be able to showcase some at the highest minor hockey level is exciting for us.”

The SAHA Women’s U18 team finished their first season of games with a record of 12-13-1-1. A trip to the playoffs had them take on Shawnigan, St. Mary’s Academy and Okanagan. The News contacted head coach Evan Vossen but did not receive a response.

The women’s team gets their season underway Sept. 29 in Okanagan with a four-game set against St. Mary’s Academy, RHA Winnipeg and Edge School.