By Aaron Schulze

Tisdale Trojans begin main training camp for unique season

Aug 17, 2018 | 5:08 PM

With a young team last season, even for midget standards, outside expectations weren’t high for the Tisdale Trojans AAA hockey club.

After last season, those expectations are gone. The Trojans finished fourth in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League (SMAAAHL) before falling to the Swift Current Legionnaires in the first-round playoffs, and qualified for the Mac’s Tournament in Calgary to play some of the best midget teams in North America and Europe.

This season, the Trojans are the host team for the 2019 Telus Cup Western Regionals, a round-robin tournament that features three midget championship teams from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. Whoever wins the Western Regionals moves on to the Telus Cup to determine the national midget champions.

As the host team, the Trojans have a bye to the Telus Cup Western Regionals, meaning even if they get eliminated in the SMAAAHL playoffs, they’ll still have a chance to advance to the Telus Cup. Having a guaranteed spot in the Western Regionals is reassuring, but Trojans’ defenceman Landon Kosior told northeastNOW his team plans to treat it like any other year.

“We need to put the Western Regionals in the back of our mind, Kosior said. “We know it’s there for us, but we’re not thinking of that come playoffs. We’re going to have the mentality that we need to win to get in.”

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Kosior was a rookie on last year’s Trojans squad, winning the team award for Best Defenceman. He knows his team has a season that is bigger than others, but feels his team can win the Western Regionals and even the Telus Cup.

“We’ve got a great team and a great shot at winning the regionals,” Kosior said. “It starts in here in the summer. We’ve been working out and training hard pretty much every day of the week, we hope it translates on the ice.”

Kosior is entering his second season with the Trojans as a 16-year-old, and even though he’s eligible to return next year for a third, other opportunities await. Kosior was placed on the Prince Albert Raiders’ 50-man Protected Player List in the Western Hockey League and selected by the Omaha Lancers as one of two Saskatchewan-born players taken in the United States Hockey League Draft.

Kosior is unsure where he’ll end up or if this will be his last season with the Trojans, but said if he plays and trains hard this year the opportunities will open up. If this is Kosior’s last year with the Trojans, it will be a great year to play hockey.

The Trojans main camp begins Saturday at the RECplex. The Trojans begin their pre-season schedule Sept. 5 in Prince Albert against the Mintos.

aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow