Because of this, Hockey Canada will likely be sent a series of recommendations by the study’s authors to ban physical contact in peewee. Author of the study, Dr. Carolyn Emery, a sport epidemiologist and athletic therapist as well as a hockey coach and parent, said more than 1,000 game-related injuries and 400 concussions could be prevented each year in Alberta alone.

Cochrane Minor Hockey President Blake Fleming said the study’s findings are valid and should be taken seriously by all those involved with the game.

“I think hockey’s going to have to pay attention to what (Emery) has to say,” Fleming said. “And what she’s saying is hit hockey is substantially riskier than non-hit hockey.”

While Fleming said Cochrane Minor plans to wait and see how Hockey Canada and Hockey Alberta react to the proposed ban, at least two local coaches who teach the game at senior levels believe removing bodychecking from the peewee ranks would be a mistake.

Bodychecks in peewee hockey, like this one laid on Bow Valley Timberwolves winger Andrew Forster, right, last October could soon be outlawed if Hockey Canada accepts the recommendations of a recent University of Calgary study. Photo by Jeremy Nolais

Dana Boothby coaches young adults on the Junior B Cochrane Generals and has also had three sons come up through the Cochrane Minor Hockey system. He said the longer kids wait to begin bodychecking the more likely they are to hurt themselves or others.

“The way I see it is you need a certain amount of time to learn a skill,” he said.

Boothby said he feels studies like the one led by Emery tend to focus on a few “remote examples.”

Boothby added that his sons progressed through the bodychecking training just fine.

Kevin Willison, head coach of the Edge School Prep team in Springbank, echoed Boothby’s comments.

“It certainly is tougher at our level to teach them how to bodycheck than when they’re younger,” Willison said.

Willison said even at the atom and tyke age levels kids are constantly running into each other.

“It’s really about teaching kids how to protect themselves,” he said. “Also, when you talk to scouts a lot of them fault kids who are unwilling to play in the high-traffic areas.”

To gain their results, U of C researchers compared the frequency of injuries in Alberta peewee hockey to Quebec peewee hockey, where bodychecking is not allowed. Fleming pointed out that elite players in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League don’t seem to be at a disadvantage despite learning to bodycheck at a later age.

“That would suggest that certainly for the elite player it doesn’t make a difference,” he added.

Despite this, Fleming said he is not advocating for a ban on peewee checking, he is simply suggesting the U of C study be taken seriously.

All coaches with Cochrane Minor Hockey have to gain Hockey Alberta accreditation and all peewee players must participate in a hitting clinic before being allowed to compete.

Both Fleming and Boothby said there is a very natural progression through the various age levels in the current system.

“Still, the evidence suggests that kids are getting hurt more than they should be,” Fleming noted.

Boothby said as long as precautions are being taken, he sees no problem with continuing to allow bodychecking in the peewee game.

“Bodychecking is a part of hockey and it’s not going anywhere.”

Related stories:

1. Young captain leads Zone 2 hopes on ice
2. Raymond’s star shines bright with homecoming hat trick
3. Cochrane skaters prove to be stars on ice at provincial event

The signs of a gifted young hockey player are all there.

A team-first mentality, the ability to compete against more experienced players and a knack for putting the puck in the net. And the best part of all is that she’s just 14 years of age.

Yes, Cochrane’s Samantha Sutherland is a coaches’ dream, just ask her current bench boss Mikko Makela.

“She’s a very good player, very skilled, everything’s good,” said Makela, current hockey director and head coach at Warner Hockey School in southern Alberta where Sutherland debuted this season. “She’s a ninth grade player who plays like an eleventh grade player.”

After roughly 50 games with Sutherland under his direction, Makela — a Finnish professional hockey player who spent six seasons in the NHL between 1985 and 1990, has already declared her the most skilled 14-year-old female hockey player in Canada.

“That’s what I believe, there are maybe other people who think a little differently about some other players, but I’m not too far I don’t think,” he said.

Sutherland made the jump to the Warner Warriors midget team directly from peewee hockey in Cochrane. Competing with her team in the Junior Women’s Hockey League — featuring elite teams from all over North America — often forces the 5’2”, 122-pound forward to line up against players as much as five years older than her.

None of it seems to have slowed down her offensive production, however, as Sutherland sits third on Warner in scoring with 21 goals and 21 assists — an even split for a player who prides herself on her playmaking skills.

“I try to always work hard every shift and try to set up good scoring chances for my team,” Sutherland said. “I try to control the play as much as I can.”

Sutherland said her first year at Warner has been better than she ever imagined.

“Being away from my family took a bit of time to adjust to but everyone involved in the program here is so nice and has been so supportive to me, they are like my second family,” she said. “Also, adjusting to playing Midget AAA was a real challenge because the play is so fast and most of the players are quite a bit older than me.”

As well, the small-town atmosphere in Warner, which at a population of slightly more than 300 people makes Cochrane seem like a metropolis, has quickly grown on Sutherland.

“Everyone in the town knows us and says hi, it makes you feel special,” she explained. “If you come to a home game on Saturday night you will see a lot of Warner pride and fans who haven’t missed a home game in six years.”

Now, Sutherland will take a brief hiatus from Warner and head north to the Lakeland Region for the Alberta Winter Games Feb. 4-7. There, she will serve as captain on a Zone 2 girls hockey team featuring seven fellow Cochranites.

It will be the young forward’s second trip to the Games as she helped Zone 2 capture silver in 2008.
Zone 2 head coach Claude Vilgrain, a former NHLer in his own right who now coaches the Calgary Bantam AAA Outlaws, said choosing Sutherland as his captain was a no-brainer.

“She has the experience, the skill level, awareness and hockey sense that is above her age level,” Vilgrain said. “She is a very smart player and very driven player as well and that helps.”

Other Cochranites on the team are Hannah Olenyk, Emily Potts, Cylenna Alexander, Andie Boeckman, Channia Alexander as well as netminders Jade Walsh and Kirsten Chamberlin. Chamberlin, specifically, was a surprising selection for the team as she is just 11 years old — the minimum age required to participate in the Games.

“We just had no choice but to pick her, she did what she had to do,” Vilgrain said of Chamberlin, who stops pucks for the division-leading Cochrane Rockies Tier 1 Peewee girls team of the Rocky Mountain Female Hockey League.

As for projections on how his team will perform, Vilgrain said they will be competitive but face stiff competition from the Calgary players on the Zone 3 team — including his own daughter Cassandra — and the Red Deer team representing Zone 4.

“Chemistry is the key,” he said. “The teams have to come out of the gate pretty quick and the ones that are able to do this will be the most successful.”
Sutherland, meanwhile, is excited for the competition to get underway.

“I just try to lead by example and try to keep the team positive and focused on playing our best,” she said. “If you are out there working hard the whole team will work hard.”

And if she has it her way, Sutherland hopes that hard work will someday lead her to Division 1 college hockey and possibly a spot on Team Canada.

Related stories:

1. Cochrane coaches lament proposed bodychecking ban
2. Thunder roll to first-ever championship
3. Raymond’s star shines bright with homecoming hat trick

Cochrane archer James Webster doesn’t need a mirror to correct the finer points of his pre-shot routine, his twin brother Mark does it for him.

The two 15-year-olds, who have been perfecting their skills with a bow every day for roughly seven years, are classified as mirror-image twins, meaning they are identical, but James is right-handed and Mark is a lefty. This setup works well in archery practice because the two face each other when they line up to fire.

“It’s about having fun. We don’t care who comes first as long as the other is second,” James said. “It’s like we have our own personal coaches who watch us while we watch them . . . I think if I didn’t have my big brother to help me I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Mark, who is one minute older, said that if he and James had it their way they would practice 12-15 hours a day or more.

Their infatuation with the sport began at a non-electric amusement park back home in England. Just eight years old at the time, both Mark and James spent most of the day firing traditional longbows at an on-site range.

“They must have stayed there for three hours. They didn’t go around the rest of the park,” recalls the twins’ father Tony Webster.

Tony signed the boys up for at a nearby club where coaches quickly determined that the two were naturals.

In September 2008, the Websters moved to Cochrane and Mark and James became members at the Cochrane Archery Centre. They practice twice a week in Calgary and daily in the basement of their house where Tony has setup a makeshift range.

“Back home the coaches had a lot longer to work with us and they taught us the basics,” Mark said. “Out here the coaches are really good, they have worked with the Koreans who are the world champions.”

Now, the twins’ seeming obsession with finding the bulls-eye has earned them tickets to the Alberta Winter Games, held Feb. 4-7 in Alberta’s Lakeland region, where they will compete in the ages 15-17 recurve bow division.

Scores earned by fellow archers from around the province are not made public so Mark said it will be very interesting to see how he stacks up to the competition.

“Consistency is the key,” Mark said. “You have to be like a robot and concentrate. If even one of your steps is off — your foot’s off, your grip is too high, where you rest the string to your chin, anything — it can throw you off.”

James added, “There’s just so many variables, there are so many things that can go wrong. That’s the fun of it, being able to perfect everything that could go wrong.”

While many archers have switched to a high-tech compound bow, James and Mark prefer the tradition recurve style because it requires more skill to perfect and is the only discipline contested at the Olympics.

“It’s a dark side because it’s ridiculously easy,” Mark said of the compound bow.

“There’s a magnified scope and you pull a trigger, you’re not shooting normally, it’s like a gun.”

Beyond the archery range, the Websters said they have enjoyed life in Cochrane a great deal; both Mark and James attend school at Cochrane High.

“We went to a few schools and they didn’t feel right but we went there and it was perfect,” James said of his school. “There’s no other place we want to be.”

The twins said they view the Alberta Games as a building block to bigger things in the future, as both have dreams of representing Canada in archery at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“We live in Canada and we want to shoot for Canada,” James said.

And, staying true to their brotherly bond, neither Mark nor James was willing to declare himself better than the other.

In Britain, James was club champion, but Mark was more consistent week-to week.

“It really depends on the week,” Mark said.

“There’s no real way to determine who is better,” James added.

Related stories:

1. Young captain leads Zone 2 hopes on ice
2. Cochrane coaches lament proposed bodychecking ban
3. Local hoops star nets CIS medal for Saskatchewan

It was the greatest night of Mason Raymond’s young life, and the best part of all was that his family and friends were on hand to witness the whole thing.

The 24-year-old emerging NHL star, who grew up on a ranch just outside of Cochrane, scored three goals in succession in the first two periods Dec. 27 as his Vancouver Canucks thumped the host Calgary Flames 5-1 in front of a packed house at the Saddledome.

It was the first career hat trick for the speedy left-winger and earned him the game’s first star recognition.

“Obviously it was great,” said a reserved Raymond in the locker room after the game. “I grew up watching the Flames and was a big fan . . . this area has been good to me over the years.

“Obviously the Calgary-area is very passionate about their hockey and Cochrane was a great place for me to grow up. Some good players have come out of there, I still consider it home and a place I come back to all the time and enjoy.”

Vancouver forward Mason Raymond celebrates his third goal of the night as the Cochrane hockey product tallied his first-ever hat trick in a 5-1 win against Calgary Flames Dec. 27. Raymond was named first star in the effort and now has a career-high 29 points (17 goals, 12 assists) for Vancouver this season. Photos by Jeremy Nolais.

More photos from the game: Photo Gallery

For Raymond’s father, Terry, who watched his son play the game of his life from the Saddledome stands along with wife Carol, daughter Nadine, and numerous other family and friends, it was an emotion-filled night that he will never forget.
“Well I didn’t cry,” Terry said, chuckling. “I always believed in him. You just never know how big the heart in the dog is.”

Terry, who still lives in the Cochrane area, has been Mason’s biggest source of encouragement over the years, offering him guidance and building outdoor rinks for his son to practice on as a youngster.

The proud father recalls watching with great excitement as his son erupted on the Alberta hockey scene with the Camrose Kodiaks in 2005, scoring a league-high 41 goals and adding an identical number of assists in his second season with the team to lead them to the Alberta Junior Hockey League championship.

Later on that year, the Canucks drafted Mason in the second round, 51st overall.

It was at this point that the Cochrane farm boy’s dreams of playing in the NHL became a viable reality.

“I think you always believe you can make it,” Mason said. “You get your chances and opportunities, but when I got drafted that was really the turning point.”

After successful stints with the NCAA’s University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs and the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League, Raymond finally earned his NHL stripes in the Canucks season-opener against the San Jose Sharks in October 2007, picking up an assist in the process on a goal by Brendan Morrison.

But the battle wasn’t over for Mason, as he suffered a knee injury during a game in March 2008 that sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Finally, after being scratched from the lineup numerous times during the regular season, Mason got his shot in last year’s playoffs when fellow Vancouver forward Pavol Demitra went down with a knee injury in the second round against the Chicago Blackhawks. Paired with Canucks stars Mats Sundin and Ryan Kesler, Mason took full advantage of his opportunity, scoring two goals and adding an assist before the Canucks fell to the ‘Hawks in six games.

It’s been a long road indeed, but looking back Mason doesn’t seem to have many regrets.

“It’s all been stepping stones to where I’m at now,” he said bluntly.

Where he’s at now is a consistent second-line forward for the Canucks who has appeared in every game for the team this season and already logged a career-high 29 points (17 goals,12 assists) with a lot of season still left.

Terry says his son has gained a new level of confidence this season and he foresees even greater things from him in the years ahead.

“He hasn’t exceeded my expectations, I expect a lot more from him yet,” Terry said. “He has got a long ways to go yet with his development in terms of where he wants to be.”

Mason’s father isn’t the only one who has taken notice of the Cochranite’s drastic improvement, just ask Canucks superstar Daniel Sedin.

“He’s such a skilled player, and a smart player, and he’s figured it out himself,” Sedin said. “We have been there too, myself and Henrik (his twin brother and fellow Canucks forward), sometimes you have just got to relax, get back to the basics and have fun.

“Mason’s been working really hard these past few years and now he is getting some really nice goals and some points too. He’s really deserving of his success.”

Success like his hat trick Dec. 27. In the opening period, Mason got behind the Calgary defence and chipped a shot from Mikael Samuelsson past Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. On the same shift, Mason flipped a puck in from about centre ice that fell onto Kiprusoff’s left arm and then trickled into the net.

In the second period, Vancouver defenceman Alexander Edler fed a beautiful, cross-ice pass to Mason, who was on the doorstep to bury it home and complete the hat trick. The Canucks bench exploded with excitement and the young forward was mauled by his linemates.

“It was really special to do it tonight, in front of friends and family,” Mason said.

Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said the team has been extremely pleased with the input from Mason, who now ranks third on the team in overall points.

“Mason’s been real good at home and this was a real good road game for him,” Vigneault said. “A lot of our group has talked about playing better on the road . . . we made some mistakes, but our goaltending was really good and shut the door.”

The Canucks now move on to face the Blues in St. Louis on New Year’s Eve.

Related stories:

1. Elite local skaters chasing NHL dreams
2. Local hoops star nets CIS medal for Saskatchewan
3. Young captain leads Zone 2 hopes on ice

A worship and knowledge of the industry, some experience in the retail industry and a broad network of contacts, led Jev to start Calgary Fashion in 2007.

A little more than two years later, Jev watched in awe as the number of daily page views on her site, CalgaryFashion.ca, climbed to an average of 6,000 during her coverage of the first Alberta Fashion Week held Oct. 4-10.

“It’s crazy!” Jev said. “We are at the stage right now where we can only go higher and higher and can’t go back.”

The 24-year-old former Calgary Journal writer turned fashionista never dreamed she could morph her love of all things hats, scarves, boots and pleats into a business, but she’s well on her way.
Jev initially used the free service BlogSpot for her site. Over the past two years she has brought seven fellow fashion enthusiasts, including reporters, photographers, webdesigners and videographers, on board. Jev estimates that she herself spends 60-70 hours each week working on the site.

The group’s hard work is seems to be paying off, a quick Google search for “Calgary fashion” puts Jev’s site at No. 1 in returned results.

In recent months, Calgary Fashion has begun fielding calls from advertisers eager to market on the site.

Beyond this, Jev said Calgary Fashion’s exposure has allowed the brand to diversify beyond the mould of a traditional media group.

“Calgary Fashion is unique because not only are we a media group, we are a consulting agency,” Jev said, noting that recently she has begun promoting local designer Caitlin Power.
“I think nowadays you can’t rely on advertising alone to make the big millions.”

Jev is still developing a revenue base. She admits that retaining a personal salary has been a struggle, and notes that Calgary Fashion contributors work on a volunteer basis.

However, she says the contacts her staff make working in the field have led to many employment opportunities.

“We find avenues that do pay,” Jev said. “It’s very hard to stay motivated and not burn out when working on just one thing. If you allow them (the staff) to spread out and try new things it keeps their creativity up, keeps them going.”

Jev says her business model represents a new way for smaller media brands to compete with bigger groups that have more staff and an already-established base of loyal consumers.

“Things are changing now, indeed, companies like the Calgary Herald and CBC are our competition because any event we go to cover we are generally trying to do a better job than anybody out there,” she says.

Upstarts gain leg up using social media

The young entrepreneur believes many of the larger media entities in town are dropping the ball when it comes to communicating with consumers through social media.

“I think with a paper like the Calgary Herald, it’s such a huge entity that they forget to connect with the public at times,” Jev said.

The Herald currently has just 140 fans on its general Facebook page, however, nearly 3,000 people follow the publication on Twitter.

Jev attributes much of her success to constant promotion through social media forums, namely Facebook.

“By creating a Facebook group and communicating to people I knew through that. . . that’s when I saw the interest really grow,” she said.

At last check, Jev now has more than 1,400 fans on Calgary Fashion’s Facebook page. She also has roughly 150 followers on the site’s official Twitter account (@Calgary_Fashion) and nearly 450 on her personal account (@Kimleestar), which she also uses for promotion.

“It’s really just is about your drive and ability to push things on people,” Jev says. “Even though I am not always online, I probably mention CalgaryFashion.ca about 30 times a day.”

Estimates put the number of Twitter accounts in the tens of thousands for “yyc,” a hashtag based on Calgary’s airport code that users add to their Twitter micro-posts, or “tweets,” to indicate to others where they are communicating from. Meanwhile, the creators of Facebook claim to have more than 300 million users worldwide, who spend a total of roughly six billion minutes on the site every day.

Requests for Calgary-specific statistics for Facebook were denied by of their representatives.
Roger Kondrat, founder of Calgary-based West17Media, which specializes in helping businesses integrate social media into their marketing strategy, said social media offers countless advantages for upstart organizations like Calgary Fashion.

“Smaller organizations thrive on customer service and retention because finding customers and convincing them of their credibility as an enterprise is a greater challenge than their larger peers,” he said.

“Social media is another layer on the Internet that is often referred to as the ’social web’ and this layer allows for even deeper relationships to form between customer and business.”

Part-time podcasting consultant Daryl Pamplin can attest to the benefits of marketing a business through social media. He frequently uses Twitter and other forums to advertise training seminars hosted through his Calgary-based company, Run Amuk Media.

“It’s mainly smaller marketers and companies interested in it (podcasting training),” said Pamplin, who has helped produce roughly 200 podcasts for local groups like Calgary Addiction Centre and also taught classes on the medium for Chinook Learning Services.

“I have also seen a bit of an increase in the number of amateur podcasters popping up in Calgary,” he said.

Podcasts are a series of audio or video files that are distributed and gain popularity online.
Pamplin initially delved into the world of podcasting and social media in 2004, when Facebook friends and “tweeting” were foreign concepts to most.

He says the key to using social media effectively is fostering an environment of natural dialogue with fellow users.

“Everyone has a different way of using social media and interacting with their friends. . .,” said Pamplin, who has made roughly 21,000 posts on Twitter under his alias @darylcognito and attracted more than 600 followers. “Twitter and Facebook are not about the market and the celebrities, they are about the users.”

The big dogs aren’t lying down either

This graph shows the total web hits over the past 12 months for five major websites in Calgary. The Calgary Herald site (blue line) surpassed the University of Calgary’s site last March, according to the graph.

Graphic: Compete.com

David Blackwell, the Calgary Herald’s director of online content, said integrating social media into the publication’s promotional strategy has played a major role in transforming CalgaryHerald.com into “likely” the No. 1 website in Calgary in terms of online traffic.

Although, Blackwell admitted there is no way to obtain definitive proof that the Herald’s site is visited more than any other in town, because competitors likely use varying methods and criteria when analyzing their traffic. He offered some encouraging statistics from web analytics tracker Compete.com.

The U.S.-based ranking company does not track every website in Calgary — notably missing is CBC Calgary’s site.  However, it does put the Herald ahead of key competitors such as the Calgary Sun, CTV Calgary and Global Calgary. In fact, Compete says the Herald has seen a more than 2,000% increase in web traffic over the past 12 months and last May it topped the University of Calgary website (ucalgary.ca), which previously was the tracker’s No. 1-ranked locally based site.

Blackwell noted in an e-mailed statement to the Calgary Journal that the key to the Herald online is “doing what we’ve been doing: breaking news, business and sports stories before anyone else does online or on-air. Providing more details on more stories more quickly than other news services is a key part of what we do.

“Another growing part is engaging, and listening to, our audience via blogs, story comments, polls and other tools.”

The Herald’s not the only traditional media outlet hoping to reach out to readers. Metro Calgary, for example, has begun using Twitter for things like generating story ideas, finding sources and keeping readers updated minute-by-minute on breaking stories, according to editor Darren Krause.

“We want to engage Calgarians in the news decision-making, the news collection and the news delivery,” said Krause, who posts a call for story ideas from his Twitter followers on slower news days. “I believe having readers help determine the local editorial direction with an ongoing dialogue, through something like Twitter, helps build a partnership and an ownership in their daily newspaper.”

Despite this new initiative by major media players in town to engage the audience, Krause isn’t necessarily convinced that the emergence of social media has made Calgary’s media climate more competitive, but rather thinks it has changed the playing field.

“I think there’s always been a healthy amount of competition between the mainstream media outlets — whether that’s online or in print,” he said. “We’ve seen web redesigns by all three daily print media outlets over the past year or so, but I believe it has been in response to reader needs as opposed to competitive forces.

“But, of course, I also acknowledge that responding to reader feedback itself lends to a competitive atmosphere in itself.”

Part 1:
Social media’s ‘evolution’

Part 3: Where will the information superhighway lead next? — Industry professionals from all corners weigh in on where technology will take the media next.

Related stories:

1. Engaging the masses: Where will the information superhighway lead next?
2. Engaging the Masses: Social media’s ‘evolution’