Forty of the Province's best 15 year olds are in Wasasgaming from Monday-Wednesday working on team building activities.
Forty young Manitobans are in Wasagaming from Monday-Wednesday for Hockey Manitoba's Program of Excellence Camp.
Amoung them are Mark Liwiski of Dauphin who was drafted 58th overall by the Everett Silvertips and Souris' Trent Miner.
"It's a huge honour," says Liwiski. "You look at a list of people who have attended this program in the past, you see NHL players coming from this program right here, so it's a huge honour."
Liwiski also said representing Dauphin at the PoE is an honour. "Most of the guys are from the city so it's kinda cool to be from a small town. It's a great group of guys."
Liwiski hopes to follow in the footsteps of Dauphin's Connor Dewar who was also drafted by the Silvertips, he was named their Rookie of the Year at the end of the 2015-16 season.
After the draft Dewar played for the Parkland Midget Rangers then went on to play for the Silvertips as a 16-year-old, which is exactly what Liwiski hopes to do.
He will attend the Silvertips main camp from August 24th-29th, shortly after the U-16 Program of Excellence's Final Camp wraps up on August 14th. It will be Liwiski's first time exploring Everett's facilities.
It's in Everett where he hopes to be noticed. Everett's Manitoba scout has seen Liwiski play, but he hopes to leave a lasting first impression with Silvertips brass which will help him return to the club as a 16-year-old.
Trent Miner was the lone goaltender and Manitoban drafted in the first round of the WHL's 2016 Bantam draft. He was taken 20th overall in the 1st round by the Vancouver Giants.
Parkland Rangers fans will be familiar with Miner, he was the Brandon Bantam Wheat Kings backstop last season and he says Credit Union Place is a tough venue to perform in.
"There's usually lots of energy in the rink," he admitted. "It's hard to play in sometimes. You've got to establish yourself quick in that arena."
Despite being the only goaltender and Manitoban drafted in the first round Miner isn't putting too much stock in those accolades.
"It's a nice feather in your cap, but it doesn't mean a lot. It's not going to get me where I want to go. It's going to be hard work that gets me places."
The focus of this weekend excursion is to focus on off-ice development and team, and relationship building before eventually heading off to the Western Canada Challenge.
"The [Western Canada Challenge] is a short term competition," said Program of Excellence coach Rob Smith. "In our opinion, as a staff, teams that come together and know how to work together have a better chance of success."
"Most of these guys are on the ice too much anyway, on their own. They're motivated, they're on the ice a lot. But it's summertime, it's 25 degrees outside, let's get outside and have some fun and experience some different things."
And experience some different things they will. Apart from spending two nights in Riding Mountain's fabulous oTENTiks at the Wasagaming campground, their three day itinerary includes team building events like an Amazing Race, a mini golf scramble, a kayak relay, and lawn bowling tournament inbetween tact and walk-through meetings.
Most of the 40 chosen to attend the camp were selected in the WHL Bantam Draft, but there are the odd few who were not.
"They're hungry. Some of them are disappointed, which they should be," explains coach Rob Smith. "As long as they use that to motivate and fuel them in a positive direction. The draft is really only one step. It's not over for them, there's still a lot of time to be listed or be a walk-on that makes a team."
More than anything Coach Smith hopes the players have a positive experience and by departure time on Wednesday afternoon that they grew as a team and got to know somebody they didn't know.
Trent Miner has already made friends with other players he never saw himself being friends with having played against them.
"You see the real side of guys. Some guys just get caught up in the game and you forget who they really are, but off the ice it's good to see who they really are and make good friends.
The U-16 Program of Excellence team will have their final camp August 11-14th in Winnipeg before heading off to the Western Canada U-16 Challenge Cup October 18-23 in Calgary.
