Local sports notebook

Before fridays' home opener against Westshore, I was talking with CRMHA president Al Barker about minor hockey. There seems to be an alarming trend. While he says the overall numbers are around 500 registered kids, unfortunately, a lot of them have chosen to play house and not rep hockey. To give you an example,
Kyle Bukauskas, who works part time with us here at 99.7 the River and is a member of the Midget team that captured bronze at last year's provincials says their numbers are really low. They only have around 15 guys. So Moms and Dads, if your kid has been wanting to play rep hockey, now's the time to get them in there to keep our teams going and competitive.

On to junior hockey. It was nice to see all 3 newcomers in the line up make a contribution in the win. Brendan Enns scored a spectacular individual goal and used his reach well. He just needs to focus on not trying to be too pretty when passing the puck out of his zone. He has terrific potential and should be a solid defenseman this year. Boston McNeill played a nice gritty game. I have a feeling he'll become a fan favorite if he continues to be a gamer throughout the season. It was also nice to see Andrew Gaiga add an aggresive edge to the Storm's forecheck. He's a veteran that has finals experience and a welcome addition to a young Storm line-up.

The Storm are off until Friday, and you can expect they will be practicing hard to prepare for a pair of games against the team that's poised to repeat as champion in the Peninsula Panthers.  They and the Comox Valley Glacier Kings the only two unbeated teams. Granted it's really early in the season, but both teams have pulled off some impressive wins.
We'll have the pregame show on 99.7 the river at 7:15 friday from Panorama.

Golden Wings huddle up on the sidelines

Let's shift our focus to a pair of local teams in other sports that had their opener this weekend.
The Golden Wings Men’s soccer team had a successful debut in the VISL’s Div 3B, after winning it all in Div 4C last year (and going undefeated in 16 regular season games). They knocked off Lakehill United 1-0, Eric Roberts with the winner.
Next up for the Wings is a match with Nanaimo United on Saturday.

High school football had the Timberline Wolves Sr. boys playing their first game Friday since beating the Moscrop Panthers in last year’s BC Tier 2 championship game. They traveled to Langley’s McLeod stadium, the same place they captured the school’s first provincial crown to take on the Langley Saints in an exhibition game. The Saints defeated the Wolves 24-8.
Timberline head coach Martin Jaunzemis was really pleased with how his defense played, singling out the d-line which included Nathan Dumont and Jake Christiansen, along with inside linebacker Tyler Stewart. Trevor Mellanson had an interception. Jaunzemis says the offense will look really good when it starts clicking, as timing was the issue and should get ironed out by the time regular season rolls along.
Wolves next game, still exhibition, is against Abbotsford’s Robert Bateman Timberwolves here in Campbell River Saturday at 1:00.