Six North Shore teens took off for Italy on Thursday, getting a bit of an early jump on an awesome summer trip.
They aren’t there, however, just to sample some authentic pizza and hit the beach. They’re there to win a world championship as part of Canada’s inline hockey junior national team.
The six players - Liam Kindree, Josh Latta, Austin McQuay, Jake Christiansen, Callahan Brebner and Bayley Tsumura – make up nearly half of the national junior team and all of them got their careers rolling with the North Shore Inline Hockey League.
“I’m really close friends with pretty much all of them. That’s pretty cool,” Latta told the North Shore News before heading off to Italy, adding that the tournament is all they’ve talked about since they learned that they’d made the team. “Everybody gets to share what they’re excited about. It just makes the whole experience more exciting. … Just talking about it is the best part I think, and knowing that you’re going to have guys there that you know and you’re comfortable with, and guys that you have chemistry with on the floor.”
It’s now time to move from talk into action as the Canadians will open their tournament today with a game against Slovenia in Roana, Italy. In pool play the juniors will also face the Czech Republic – one of the top-ranked teams in the world – and Colombia before moving on to the playoffs.
Jared Eng, another North Shore link, is also making the trip to Italy to play with the senior national team in the world championships beginning June 20.
“It says a lot about our program,” said NSIHL president Jim Pratt about the North Shore contingent that is representing the country. “We’re turning out world-class kids.”
Most of the players took similar paths to the inline championships, starting out as strong ice hockey players before adding the roller game to their repertoire in their teens. Latta said he started ice hockey at age four and it took a bit of time to adjust to wheels when he moved onto the state-of-the-art roller floor at Karen Magnussen Arena.
“I was a pretty awful skater for my first couple of years, but I got the hang of it,” he said. “At first it’s really difficult. You’re stopping on wheels instead of blades. That’s more difficult. … I’m having a great time playing it now, it’s such a fun sport.”
All six of the North Shore players still compete at high levels in ice hockey, which may give them a “puck sense” advantage at the inline world championships, said Latta. “That’s something that Canada has that’s unique.”
They’ve all also benefitted from the NSIHL, the largest non-profit inline league in Canada. The league runs co-ed recreational games throughout the spring while also fielding Zulu elite teams that travel to competitions across North America.
“It’s just such a fun league,” said Latta. “You always have guys on your team that you know and you like. Every time you go to the rink it’s a blast.”
Pratt said that the league is pushing 700 in enrollment and hoping to approach 1,000 players in the near future. League fees start at just $50 for players in the six-10 age groups with girls getting a 50 per cent discount. And as the North Shore stars headed to Italy have shown, the league offers elite players a chance to take their game to the sport’s highest levels.
“I’ve always said you’ve got a much better chance of going to represent Canada playing inline hockey than you do ice hockey,” said Pratt.
As for this year’s stars, they’re excited about pulling on the Maple Leaf jersey, many of them, like Latta, playing internationally for the first time.
“The coolest thing about getting selected to this team is being able to represent Canada,” he said. “I’ve never been outside of North America. I’m just super excited to play against other great players from around the world and play on a scale of this size for inline. … I’m hoping for a great result. I don’t know exactly how we’re going to line up but I know we’ll have a good team and that we’ll be capable of achieving good things over there.”
