KAMLOOPS — Four days of training camp wrapped up today with the awarding of the first annual Blazers Cup.
With 90 players, veterans and rookies in the mix, on four teams in a tournament format.
17-year old rookie prospect Jerzy Orchard scored the only goal in a shootout as Team Strudwick came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Team Tucker 3-2.
“Well I think I really liked the format,” says Head Coach Serge Lajoie. “Based on the objective we wanted out of this training camp was to expose as many players as we felt were deserving of what it’s like to be a Blazer, what’s required to be a Kamloops Blazer — the work ethic that is required to put your best foot forward and improve on a daily basis, so we were able to expose a lot of ’03, ’02 and 2001 players to our environment.”
At times it looked like the men against the boys —- grizzled veterans against 15 or 16 year olds who are in the same position now that the veterans were three or four years ago.
“They said they wanted the vets to set the tempo and I think we did a good job,” says 20-year old forward and five year veteran Luc Smith. “And showing these young guys what it’s going to take to one day be a Blazer. For us, you know Serge said this is step one of the season and I think we did a good job of just getting that going, and performing to our capabilities.”
One of the ’01 players who stood out in the final game was #12 for the Tuckers, was Kyrell Sopotyk, a 17-year old rookie trying to make it at his third training camp.
Sopotyk appeared to be on the verge of making the team a year ago when he was injured and was out until January. He returned to Prince Albert triple “AAA” midget Mintos — played nine games and separated his shoulder.
“I have experience here now,” says Sopotyk. “I’ve seen the vets out there play and what it takes to play in the Western League. I feel good going into the pre-season games. I got experience last year playing in a couple of exhibition games. Now basically I’m a little bit older, faster, stronger. I feel good going into it.”
The Blazers cut back to 37 players for the start of the pre-season this weekend with home games Friday against Prince George and Saturday against Victoria.
