Toe to Toe – Peewee AAA - North Bay News

Toe to Toe – Peewee AAA

Two combatants from Cogeco’s Sports Firing line Frank “The Toe” Caruso (left), and Chris Dawson (right) now take their arguments to the web with a BayToday.ca's weekly sports opinion feature called, “Toe to Toe.”

A Triple A Peewee tournament team is being created to play in summer tournaments. How important do you think it is to have Peewee AAA re-implemented into minor hockey in our city?

Frank:

”Oh, I think it’s extremely important, I think it’s one of the biggest things you have to do I think to create a great association for people that want to play triple A hockey have to play at the peewee level and that’s where you have to begin, at least you have to begin there and I think what Randy Edmonds and Lui Ricci are doing (and that’s two very good people), that I think it’s a great thing and I think it’s an absolute necessity so our players can be better in the future as a hockey program because let’s be honest, this hockey program has not been good and it hasn’t been good for a decade so now we can make that extra step because we can start them younger again.

“It’s not for everybody, but you will know if it’s right for your son, and if it is, it’s extremely important for the development of those children to go into bantam and go into midget AAA and I can’t emphasize it enough and I just hope that politics just doesn’t get in the way and the best players are chosen.

“I think the fall program could work out of West Ferris and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be able to work out of West Ferris but if we have to build a new association to get this started let’s get rid of the West Ferris minor hockey association and let’s develop one that will move on to the future and let’s look to the future, let’s not look at just the fun aspect, which is still very important but let’s allow North Bay to become competitive once again.”

Chris:

”Frank you are absolutely right. North Bay kids don’t stand a chance against our rivals in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie because not only do they have a larger population base but their minor hockey programs are set up to develop their kids properly.

“Sure, hockey is not all about Triple A, but we need a system in place that allows our kids to be able to compete on a level playing field with their Northern counterparts. We need Peewee AAA and we need our kids playing in the Sudbury loop in the minor bantam league where the Sudbury Peewee AAA team plays . Our kids are moving up to Bantam AAA after playing in a Peewee AA league while their Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie opponents the same age have one year of experience competing at a higher level against better and older competition.

“Having no Peewee AAA program is a huge disadvantage especially for Bantam AAA coach Mark Kosturik, and even in the spring training camp (which is a great idea) he is playing catch-up trying to create a competitive team at that level.

“Let’s find a way to make this happen because without it North Bay will continue to be considered a mediocre hockey town in Northern Ontario at a minor hockey level. There are some good things happening with minor hockey, like three on three programs which start up in April, but hopefully this summer Peewee AAA tournament team is a step in the right direction to get North Bay back on the hockey map.”

If it means creating a new North Bay AAA athletic association that comprises Peewee, Bantam and Midget (which is the way it works best) then maybe that is the direction the local hockey community should take.”

Toe to Toe can be seen every Friday on BayToday.ca

Toe to Toe – Peewee AAA

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