Winkler, Manitoba

Driving through Southern Manitoba and Brandon, portage la prairie, one of the first things we noticed was the great soil for farming, and large houses on huge properties with plenty of toys. Winkler, itself is a very clean, modern community with a large Mennonite population that has English and low German as spoken languages. Reminded me of the old days as a kid when nothing opened on Sundays, Winkler is old school in that regards and shops are closed on Sundays but you see families out walking and biking together.

Now, a number of very good hockey players come from Winkler, Dustin Penner(Edmonton Oilers), Eddie Belfour(the Eagle)and Eric Fehr(Washington Capitals) to name a few of the more notable ones. One of the reasons we decided upon going to Winkler was,on the advice of a good friend, word has it that the GM(Ernie Sutherland) has a great rep with kids and being a straight shooter. Now as anyone who has experienced hockey at the junior level knows you have to be careful and sort through all the B.S to get to the truth(maybe a little like life!) Hockey wise, plenty of players and some real good younger ones attended this camp. As this was Sam's last camp, he put in some real good hard work and his attitude was great!

We did one heck of a lot of driving over the past 4 weeks attending 4 different camps but the sight seeing, incorporated with the hockey was and will be a great memory along with visiting a number of small old school hockey towns and meeting some great people. The valuable experiences gained and doors opened along the way were an additional bonus. The Hockey road show is over for the season and all the best to everyone who took time to read the blog, have a great summer.