The U18 AA Warriors are still hitting the ice and the gym, developing skills as the pandemic continues.

Warriors head coach Mike Russell said the team is still buying in despite the lack of games in recent weeks, and little prospect of games the rest of the season.

“Nothing’s really changed much for us, since the inception of this semi-quasi-shutdown,” said Russell. “We’re still on the ice regularly as we were in the past, and in the gym. We’re doing a lot more in regards to the skill development in the smaller groups and trying to hone in on what each individual needs to work on for their strong points and weak points.”

As is the case elsewhere in the province and with other sports, youth teams can still practice, but in smaller groups and socially distanced.

Russell said he and the coaching staff had some early concerns about being able to keep the players engaged.

“They’re coming every night to work hard, and they’ve kind of bought in to what we’ve been selling them as part of our program,” said Russell. “They’re not taking time off. They’re not taking a stride off. When they do, we do re-iterate back to them that if they want to play and continue to play and next year look at ... possibly different levels, that they can’t take a day off and they’ve got to continue to work every night.”

This season, the Warriors had only two players that were in their final year of U18 hockey – forwards Connor Ruckaber and Lyndon Fell. The rest of the players on the roster will be able to play U18 hockey at some level next season.

“If we’re doing our job right, they should be getting opportunities to get into some camps as well as get some exposure, and possibly get some AAA invites as well,” said Russell. “So we want to build our program for next year and build these players for next year. But our goal as a coaching staff is also to develop these young individuals and give them every opportunity to try and make that jump to the next step, whether it be next year or the year after or the year after that.”