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Grande Prairie Minor Hockey U13 AA teams to transition to GPAC next season

May 11, 2021 | 1:04 PM

The Grande Prairie Minor Hockey Association (GPMHA) and Grande Peace Athletic Club (GPAC) have announced that starting next season, the two GPMHA U13 AA (formerly Peewee AA) teams will be moving and competing under the GPAC name and colours.

In a joint statement, the organizations say the transition of the U13 AA teams will help provide the next step in the growth of GPAC being able to provide elite level hockey to players in the region.

“Development of players and coaches throughout our zone has always been a priority for our program and we look forward to the opportunity to work with the U13 players and coaches,” said GPAC President, Tyler Stojan.

GPMHA Technical Director Brett Stephenson, says moving the U13 AA team from league hockey to club hockey is in alignment with other hockey associations across Alberta.

“Province-wide there’s a push for players at the U13 level to start their elite stream road map (at this age) and we felt at this time it would be a great idea to make it happen and move forward. Within the last 2-3 years, a lot of organizations have gone down this road and we felt this was a great time to do it.”

While the U13 AA players will be making the transition to the GPAC colours, Stephenson expects that the schedule for players will remain the same.

“The player evaluation and tryouts will look the same, minor hockey and GPAC will keep working together. They are (still) in the same league, the same rules apply, so it’s almost just a shift in terms of name and jerseys.”

“There will be a few different wrinkles we’ll have to work out moving forward in terms of practice times and maybe facilities, overall, I think it’ll be similar to what they’ve had in the past.”

Stephenson adds he’s hopeful that as vaccines begin to roll out that both the GPMHA and GPAC will be able to complete a full season next year.