One practice at a time, the Moose Jaw U15 AA Warriors are getting ready for the 2020-2021 season.

Head coach Todd Cole has been busy after a week of evaluations and team selection, and he talked after a recent practice about who he's got on the team.

“I’ve got three from last year,” Cole said. “As far as second-year kids, I think we’re about 70-30 in our mix with second-year kids and first-year kids. Two first-year goalies. Really good kids. A lot of good attitudes and a good approach to the game. I’m pretty excited for the year.”

Last year’s team won three of 31 regular-season games in the southern division of the U15 AA league and finished in tenth out of 11 teams in the south. Top two scorers Rowan Calvert and Liam Fitzpatrick have aged out of U15 hockey – both were drafted by the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and Calvert was picked in the later rounds by the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades in their bantam draft.

This year, Cole, who is taking the reigns from former U15 AA Warriors coach Shane Smith, is glad to get a bit of practice time before the season starts, even if they don’t know exactly when it will be able to get going.

The 2019-2020 season got underway on the first weekend of October but with that date rapidly approaching, it’s not looking like the games will start anytime in the next couple of weeks.

“We want to get all the kids going with our team identity, that we want to be a good, hard-working team throughout the season,” Cole said. “This is going to give us a lot of opportunities for them to work on their individual skills. We get a lot of puck touches throughout these practices that we wouldn’t get if we just jumped right into games. So it’s a good environment for these kids.”

Cole has had former Warriors great and veteran minor hockey coach Derek Kletzel and WHL Warriors assistant coach Scott King at recent practices.