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Butler hoping to grow the game in North Bay

Stan Butler has seen a lot of players come through his dressing room and leave to become professional hockey players.

Stan Butler has seen a lot of players come through his dressing room and leave to become professional hockey players. 

While his priority has been to develop players to help his major junior team, he is also concerned and wants to make a difference in the minor hockey development of players in the north - specifically here in North Bay. 

Last season the Battalion offered its first ever hockey school.  That was step one. 

“It’s a program more for the younger kids and get them on the ice and do some fun off-ice stuff with them, they get lunch and the opportunity to interact with our players,” said Butler describing the week-long full-day hockey school which was offered for the first time last August. 

This summer they are offering the hockey school again but Butler says they are stepping it up by offering an elite camp which simulates the day to day practice and off-ice fitness training that the Battalion players do, day in and day out.  

“This is a program we’ve run in Toronto before and we are going to bring in 25 high level girls and 25 high level guys in and kind of simulate what it would be like being with the Battalion for a week,” said Butler.

“It’s an intense program and hopefully what it will do for these kids is it will give them an idea what it’s like for an OHL week or an OHL schedule.  We are going to run practices like we would run with our own team and obviously our trainer James Borelli would put them through a conditioning program that would be similar to what we put our guys through.” 

Butler believes by bringing high level programs to North Bay, it will play a role in making North Bay families think twice about relocating to Toronto so their sons or daughters can play minor hockey in a better and bigger minor hockey program like the GTHL. 

Dylan Bond won an OHF Bantam AAA Championship with the Mississauga Rebels in Timmins back in April.  The North Bay native is expected to go high in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection. 

Out of the five North Bay area players drafted in the OHL Priority Selection this year, only one played minor midget for a North Bay area team.  

“Some people tell you what they can do and others prove it,” Butler stated about his and the Battalion track record for hockey development. 

“When you look at the players that I’ve trained that are in the NHL - there are three of them that played on the Canadian World Championship team.  We are just going to try to run a program that allows the kids to stay.”

Butler hopes the Battalion elite camp is a stepping stone for bigger things down the road. 

“One of my goals is allow kids to not to have to move and stay at home and to develop at the pace they need to be successful,” he said. 

“If we are going to do those type of things, we as an organization have to be pro-active and provide a program like this in place and what we are trying to do is save people money in the city in the sense that they don’t have to go to Toronto for skill development and feel that they are missing.  If we can put programs in place throughout the summer and try this as a pilot project this year, if it goes well and we can give them the development they need here in North Bay because we have the expertise.” 


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Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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