This past week saw the return of the Pistons Power Camp at the Southeast Events Center! Skaters from across Manitoba aged 7-12 had the opportunity to receive on ice instruction from current and former Steinbach Pistons.
This year saw a fun-filled week with some great developmental on-ice and dryland work and excellent classroom sessions led by our Power Camp classroom instructors Graham Pollock and Mike Kehler.
Pollock, organizer of this year’s camp, sat down with us to give his insight on the success this year:
“This year’s camp was excellent as far as development for young players goes. There’s a slow build in what the kids learn from the previous day, and everyone was engaged the whole week. The biggest component is keeping it all fun and have the kids learning in a team environment, and I think we achieved that”
“We were lucky to have Braden Bernie with us this year, who recently signed with Calgary in the American league (AHL). We were fortunate to have him come in and be our head instructor along with a number of Pistons players”
Birnie, the 25 year old forward currently signed with the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL, played for the Pistons in the second half of the 2021-2022 season as the Pistons acquired him at the trade deadline in January of ’22 from the Weyburn Red Wings in the SJHL.
Birnie gave us some insight on how the week went and what it was like to be back in Steinbach:
“It was a fantastic week. It was a great group of kids, they were fun to help coach, they were fun to be around and they had lots of energy all week. They definitely got better through the week, with the help of the Pistons players as well, who also had a blast. Overall, it was so fun to be a part of, it was a really good week at the beautiful rink here in Steinbach, and I was happy to be a small part of it!”
Thank you to all the kids, parents, instructors, and organizers for making another year of Power Camp so awesome, and another special thanks to this year’s sponsor Canadian Tire.
A couple dates to remember, Saturday September the 5th is our first preseason game of the year in a bout against the Winkler Flyers, and Saturday the 19th marks the home opener of the second year at the events center for the Pistons in a bout also against the Winkler Flyers in the first installment of the Knack-Zoat cup.
