Storm forward Brody Dale holds off a Spruce Grove Saints defender during Game 3 of the first round of the 2019 playoffs (Photo: Shane Clausing)

By Shane Clausing

Looking Ahead

Vandekamp excited and hopeful for upcoming AJHL season

Jun 18, 2020 | 12:33 PM

On Wednesday while the Storm unveiled their new Junior ‘A’ le beer at the Grain Bin Brewing Company, it also gave the team a chance to introduce new Head Coach and General Manager Mike Vandekamp in front of their fans.

Vandekamp was hired back in April, and is remembered for his four year tenure as the Storms Head Coach and General Manager from 2007-2011, where he helped lead the Storm to the AJHL championship in the 2008-2009 season.

Despite COVID-19 putting a question mark over junior hockey seasons across the country, Vandekamp says that he is preparing for the upcoming season just like they would during any other offseason.

“I’m hoping that we have some hockey starting sooner than later. I think we all are obviously. We’ve been working as though the seasons going to start on time and that’s the way our league has been planning it to and (we) are trying to put a good product on the ice here.”

“It’s been certainly strange and challenging in it’s own way here this summer to try and work through how to recruit players in a world where there wasn’t scouting that we could do, so it’s been a strange offseason. With that said, we are excited about the team and what it looks like on the ice right now and we are looking forward to get it going.”

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With the offseason operating different than normal, Vandekamp says he’s been able to talk with the players and get a feel for what type of team he’ll have going into next season.

“I’ve had good phone conversations with everyone, I’ve watched a lot of video, I’ve watched our team play more games than I needed to actually from last year. We are going to have a big group meeting here this upcoming week using Zoom and be able to talk a little bit about what’s going on and what to expect moving forward as we get closer to training camp.”

“The hard part has been that, for me being new to the team, we didn’t get to get on the ice at all. I couldn’t be more blind when it comes to what we really have here to work with. It’s going to be a fun and interesting challenge, it’s certainly unique times, but we’ll do the best that we can.”

Vandekamp says that for next season, he expects his players to show up to camp in shape and that the attitude in the Storm locker room will be one where the team is expected to have success.

“It’s all attitude, training like champions and working hard every day. We just kind of want to open up with that message right from the beginning and whether that’s a change of attitude or not I don’t know, but that’s certainly the attitude we want to have.”

When asked about what makes him excited to work with this team, Vandekamp pointed to the team’s competitive series against Spruce Grove last season and said there’s lots of potential.

“There’s a work ethic there for sure. I think the team did play well in the playoffs and showed that there is heart and desire there. I think that the attitude of the players as I spoke to them individually, you can sense that they want to be better and get winning and you got to have that good attitude and I sense that from this summer.”

No official date has been set for when AJHL training camps could potentially begin as the league assesses what the potential next steps from the province could be.