The Moose Jaw Warriors have been soaring above the competition all season long and on Monday, they were high above the city as the team continued its partnership with the Canadian Forces Snowbirds.
Forwards Brayden Burke and Branden Klatt along with goalie Brody Willms spent the day at 15 Wing Moose Jaw to learn from the local air demonstration team.
“To be up there was something special and to see our great city while flying over was amazing, and being up in the air with those guys, they’re class acts,” said Klatt, who was born and raised in Moose Jaw.
Klatt has no doubt seen the Snowbirds flying overhead throughout his life here in Moose Jaw, but he never thought that he would have the chance to actually fly with the team.
That changed on Monday and Klatt said that he tried to savour every moment.
“It was pretty cool, it was like a really insane roller coaster, it was a once in a lifetime experience and I’m so lucky that I got to go up and I’m thankful that I did,” said Klatt.
The partnership between Moose Jaw’s two most visible public organizations is now in its seventh season with the team spending a day during the season out at the base, culminating in select players flying with the Snowbirds.
In turn, the Snowbirds will be honoured at the Warriors’ game on Mar. 10 as the team sports special edition jerseys and welcomes the pilots and crew into their locker room before the game.
“They take us through parachute fitting and ejection seat training, that makes you a little bit nervous, but it’s cool to see the day-to-day stuff that they go through,” said Willms, who has watched teammates go up on flights over the past three seasons.
Willms added that he was pretty excited for the ride when he found out that he’d be giving the opportunity.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “The last few years I was able to experience the base and sit in on their meeting, but to get the opportunity to go up in the air with them was something special.”
The idea behind the partnership is information sharing. Both teams are at elite levels and can learn from the teamwork that goes into making sure each flight, or each game, goes according to plan.
“They’ve got a team just like us and all the stuff that they do takes a lot of preparation and a lot of teamwork, so it’s good to see how they come together and how well they’re organized,” said Burke.
“You’ve got to try to find a couple of things that you can take from what they do and on an everyday basis try to throw it into our team and what we do, obviously they’re professionals and the best at what they do, so if we can take some of the little things that they do, it can help us.”
Burke added that his stomach rolled a few times during the flight, but the WHL leading scorer said overall, it was an experience that he will never forget.
“The whole experience was great, I’ve never been in a jet like that, so seeing how they do it and how close they get and some of the stuff that they do was pretty outrageous,” said Burke.
The team building day was a welcome break from the day-to-day grind of the WHL season. The Warriors will return to game action coming up this weekend when they face the Red Deer Rebels on Friday and Prince George Cougars on Saturday at Mosaic Place.
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