Hockey players put in effort

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Chalk it up as a great learning experience. That's how members of the British Columbia boys' entry felt following their participation at this year's National Aboriginal Hockey Championships.

The second annual Canadian tournament for Native players was staged April 27 through May 3 in Akwesasne.

But this marked the first year a British Columbia squad took part. And unlike several other provinces, British Columbia opted to send just a boys' club to the national tourney.

The boys' division featured eight clubs. Six other teams participated in the girls' category.

On the ice, the British Columbia squad did not get the results it would have hoped for, winning just one of its five games.

"I wouldn't say I'm happy (with the scores) but I'm proud of how the team came together," said Lennie Adolph, a Dog Creek resident who served as the head coach.

Adolph said the majority of the team players didn't know one another before the tournament began.

There was also another obstacle to overcome. "It took a while to get them used to the time difference," Adolph said of his players. "And we had all morning games."

Thus, when team members woke up at 6 a.m. to prepare for their matches, some of the players' bodies were telling them it was only 3 a.m. on the West Coast.

"We don't have any excuses, though, for the way we played," Adolph said. "The boys did as well as they could."

The team lost all three of its round-robin matches. British Columbia was downed 4-2 by New Brunswick, 10-4 by Ontario North (there was also an Ontario South club), and 9-7 by Manitoba.

The British Columbia side was then edged 4-3 by Saskatchewan, the eventual gold medallists, in its quarter-final match-up.

The British Columbia boys played one game after that. They hammered Nova Scotia 11-4 in a match that decided seventh and eighth place at the tourney.

British Columbia captain Amedee Marshall admitted it was tough playing the last game. That's because a moment of silence was held beforehand for the father of Nova Scotia netminder Rod Christmas. The elder Christmas, who attended the tourney, died of a heart attack the day before.

"We decided to go and play it out," Marshall said of the match against Nova Scotia. "But there was really no hitting in the game."

Marshall added it was evident the Nova Scotia players had their thoughts elsewhere.

"They really didn't have their hearts into it," he said. "You could tell that."

Despite its lopsided victory over Nova Scotia, Marshall, a 17-year-old centre, said his team's tournament highlight came in the quarter-finals against Saskatchewan.

"I thought we were going to upset them," said Marshall, a Hazelton resident.

British Columbia overcame an early 3-0 deficit to make a close game of their battle with their Western Canadian counterparts.

Saskatchewan went on to edge Manitoba 3-2 in overtime in the gold-medal game.

Marshall added his teammates were pleased they also had a relatively close game against Manitoba, the other finalist.

"We're a little disappointed because we knew by the end how well we could have done," Marshall said.

Although their team didn't win any hardware, two British Columbia players were honored for their efforts. Both Marhall and Chris Desjarlais were among 17 individuals named to the tournament's all-star team.

All the all-stars also received invitations to attend a free Aboriginal high-performance training camp, which will be staged July 14 to 20 in Ottawa.

Meanwhile, although no official announcement has been made, it is expected that next year's national tournament will be held in Prince George.

If that's the case, British Columbia is expected to ice both girls' and boys' teams.

"It's going to be great," Adolph said of the anticipated 2004 tourney. "Just by going there this year we learned a lot. And we plan on doing this a little bit differently, but not too much differently."

So do those possible changes include having later start times for games involving British Columia squads?

"We'll see," Adolph said. "We've got all year to figure that one out."