By Nathan Kanter

New AAA Sharks coaches introduced at spring camp

Apr 19, 2018 | 12:00 PM

While a solid contingent of 13 Battlefords AAA Sharks players from last year’s team are currently at 2018 spring camp, there will be two new faces in charge behind the bench.

Revelstoke, B.C. native Kelsey Harder was named the new club’s new head coach earlier this week, while former AA Sharks head coach Doug Milne will now be an assistant coach with the AAA club.

“We coached against each other this year, so we know each other on that standpoint,” Harder said during spring camp on Wednesday afternoon. “His team improved a lot and he seems to know a lot about the game from what we talked about. I’m really looking forward to working with him. We’ll compliment each other nicely.”

Rachel Trach remains the club’s second assistant coach.

Harder, a defenceman, played her AAA midget hockey in Salmon Arm, B.C. before getting a scholarship to play at Mount Royal University. After two years there, she had to transfer to the University of Saskatchewan because of schooling, and while there played for the Huskies for one season.

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She then became a hockey skills coach even before graduating from the U of S.

“I actually stopped playing hockey and still had to finish my degree, so that’s when I got into teaching and started with the skills side of thing,” she said. “Once my degree stopped, I started getting into coaching teams, full-time…[and] it’s been really cool, kind of going to the other side of it and being able to pass my knowledge along.”

Last year, Harder, still a Saskatoon resident, coached the bantam AA Comet Chargers.

Now that she’s at the helm of a midget AAA team, she said the biggest anticipated change is the speed of the game.

“It’s just going to be quicker,” Harder said. “A good team will play fast. They’ll take away time and space from the other team and I hope to harp on that quite a bit with the girls. I like an up tempo game with lots of energy…We need to expect a little more adapatability out of the athletes. Maybe run a couple different forechecks rather than just one.”

The reason Harder took the head coaching position was simple: as a former USports and AAA player, she wants to help devlop players.

“I’m interested in coaching athletes at this level that want to make the next step,” she said. “I think I can help them with that. That’s why I took this on.”

Fifty-seven players were present at spring camp this week, including both returning goaltenders, four returning defenceman, and seven returning forwards, including the top four scorers from last season: Ali Aitken, sisters Brooklyn and Sydney Rowley, and Madison Sansom. There are also seven other players at camp that played for Milne on last year’s AA Sharks team, which went 11-11-2 in just their second season in midget AA.

The players were split into four teams and played each of the other teams once, plus they also got in a skills session on day one.

“I like the skillset that I see on the ice,” Harder said. “I’m happy with what we have for next year and where we can go.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11