The Grande Peace Athletic Club has made some changes for the 2019 season. On Thursday, it announced it had hired a Technical Director for the league.
Ryan Allen has coached minor hockey for almost nine years for a number of teams in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and has also done work with Hockey Alberta. In his new position, he says he will now be coaching the coaches.
“It’s managing their day to day operations [and] their teams but also being a resource; somebody to help with their practices, their structure, their parent meetings, just another set of eyes, another voice to have some more accountability.”
Also announced on Thursday was the addition of another Midget 15AA team. That team has been in the works since last season and President Tyler Stojan hopes it will help take care of some of the players who don’t make it to the next level right away.
“If they’re not able to make a minor midget team at 15-years-old then they’re put into midget A or midget B or they go to their home association then they’re competing with kids that are 16, 17 and turning 18 so there’s quite an age difference there. We believe that once they’re in the elite stream it’s kind of our responsibility to keep working with them, keep developing them.”
That team will hit the ice as part of the Rural and Edmonton Midget Hockey League this October.