Motivational Monday

Believe in the power of TEAM.

Together. Everyone. Achieves. More.

Road Trips

Our team spends plenty of time on the road. In fact, it's not unusual to have 2 trips into Winnipeg for games, on a single weekend.

Each round trip takes about 10 hours. It can make for a long night if the game happens to be at 8:30PM in the big city. Those nights, we make it home to bed about 1AM. Talk about dedication!

Have you ever seen the sun rise from a motor coach? We have! Not long ago, we had a morning game that required us to be on the bus at 6:15AM on a Sunday! It was -42C that morning and that's no joke! No one ever complains, we're used to it. It's just a part of living the hockey life here on the Canadian prairies.

Sunrise through the bus windows, on a cold January morning.  

The team bus, post game. 

Tournament Updates

The tournament website has been updated to include game schedules and a new promotional shop.
A quick glance at the store might give you a idea of what you might like as souvenirs.

Can you believe we're just 19 days away from making this amazing journey together?

Recognizing Our Sponsors: The November Social

The road to Quebec has included several fundraising activities. We hosted a social evening in November that was attended by many of our hockey friends.  There were a great number of sponsors that provided us with prizes for that evening. It was the key to our success.

Our sincere thanks to:

Cando Contracting

Richmond Surveys

Triple JC repair

Fowler Hyundai

Source for Sports

Petro Canada

Century 21 -Lois Fowler

Investors group - Rob Robinson

Investors group - Sheila Bursey

Evergreen products - Trish Bateman

Visalus - Kim Cumming

Superior Auto

Auto Parts Central

Brandon Chrysler Dodge

Kelleher Ford

Murray Chev Olds

Piston Ring

Trans Canada Motorsports

Wheat City Cycle

Starbucks

House of Nissan 

Webber Printing

Tastee's Ice Cream & Grill 

Crossley Septic 

Several popular game used and autographed items were provided to our team by The Edmonton Oil Kings, and also NHL players Matt Calvert, Brayden Schenn and Ryan White. 

Thank you to our players and their families for gathering and donating prizes themselves, as well as for the volunteer hours contributed to make this great event happen. 

Special thank you to Carrie Thorpe, her family and friends who spearheaded this event, and provided safe rides home. 

Join us for a weekend?

Air Miles often offers last minute flights and sometimes you are lucky enough to grab them at a discount. A quick search today, revealed this option.

Searched at Noon on January 19th.

This would enable you to join the team for the final weekend, and travel home with us. Pretty amazing for $140. (And some Air Miles.)

I find though, that discounted flights are snapped up immediately. So, if this interests you, act quickly.

You can phone them at  1-888-247-6453 or log on to your account at www.airmiles.ca and search for flights.

Motivational Monday

Who's doing the ice slide?

Here's an updated look at Carnaval 2015.

Bring your ski pants! Adventure and once-in-a-lifetime winter fun, awaits.

What's on YOUR must-do list?

Ice in your veins?

If you are Canadian, love hockey and can deal with the cold, you will want to take a good look at this!  It's a hotel of ice. Guess where it is located?

If you said Quebec City, you're right!

Here's one of the news articles written about it.

If you're wondering what the "special promotional" price on it is... it's $495 per night, per family of 4.

There is a lunch tour that is available at $30. Or rates for school groups (we should quality) at $16 per person that does not include lunch.

This is the 15th anniversary of the ice hotel. It is, of course, seasonal and closes each year in March.

Pretty cool eh?

Motivational Monday

Let's have dinner

If you are reading this, I hope to see you at our Bud, Spud & Steak night on January 18th!

It's an important event for 2 big reasons. Firstly, it is a fundraiser which will help subsidize our team's travel costs. As you can imagine, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to send 20 players and coaches to 10 day tournament, half way across our country. Fundraising will help the kids worry less about the cost and let them solely focus on their games.

The second reason this is so important, is that it will be our last chance to get together as an extended family and support group, before the tournament. The team will be at the dinner. (It is an all-ages event and kids are definitely invited to attend with their families). So this is the perfect time to let the players know that we are proud of them and wish them all the best in Quebec.

Tickets can be purchased through any of the players or parents. Yes, feel free to invite your neighbours or co-workers or anyone who would enjoy a $20 Sunday dinner with a great group of people! Do get yours today, as we are expecting, and really counting on this event to sell-out.

Thank you for your support. And a big thank you to Sherry Loewen and her family for organizing and spearheading this great event!

Reward Yourself!

When you are travelling with Westjet, it is to your benefit to have a frequent flier number. Registering for their rewards program costs nothing, and does not expire. So, even if you think that you rarely travel, it could still be worth the 3 minutes to register.

Each person, regardless of age, needs their own rewards number. So whether you are 7 or 14 or 44, travelling with a family or without, your rewards number is your own personal identification.

After reaching a certain level of travel with Westjet you will be eligible for free checked bags, waived  seat selection fees and more.

Even if you have already booked your flight, you can add your frequent flier number at check-in.

Choice Privleges is the title of the rewards program attached to the Quality Inn/Comfort Inn/Sleep Inn, Ascend Collection and Clarion hotels. Their program is also free to join and in this case, earns points per dollar spend.

Their current promotion is 3x points, or 15 points for every dollar spent in their chain. So, if a person is spending $1000 on a 10 day stay, they could earn 15,000 points.  Free hotel nights (depending on hotel and location) start at 6000 points. Therefore, you could potentially earn a free weekend in Minot by staying in Quebec. Again, worth the 2 minutes on-line to sign up.

Planning Tip: Health Insurance

Even though we are staying within Canada, there are some insurance and health care costs to consider. Quebec is the only province that does not direct-bill to Manitoba Health. Therefore we could be facing individual bills should we need to visit a doctor or seek emergency medical care while on this trip.

Here's the passage from the Manitoba Health website. 

Please look into your family or employer provided coverage, such as Blue Cross to see that you have sufficient coverage.

While the files are out, it would be a great idea to check that all your player's immunizations are up to date. With mumps plaguing the NHL, it's a very real concern for people attending large public gatherings.

You can contact the local public health office at 204-578-2536 for more informations on immunizations and the seasonal flu vaccine.

Special thanks to Treena Slate, Public Health Nurse and team parent for this valuable info.

Recognizing our sponsor: Outperforme Athletics

Today we had a team workout at Outperforme Athletics in Brandon, Manitoba. It's a fantastic facility located in the heart of Downtown on 10th Street. (345-10th Street)

Outperforme Athletics has come on board with a financial contribution to our team travel expenses, PLUS they have donated a weekly session for our whole team to train with the professionals until we head to Quebec.

Dry land training is important to athletes in every sport. Strength and endurance conditioning will help you outperform your competitors and play your best.

We thank them for their support!

Photo by J. Jordan

Planning notes regarding identification

This is directly from Westjet website.  This is for travel within Canada. There is further information on the Government of Canada website as to acceptable forms of identification. Looks like a birth certificate will be all that is needed as long as the name matches the ticket exactly.

More planning notes

Group travel is a whole different ball game. It's not your average family vacation. It can be the best of times but it can be stressful and chaotic as well. (Like a family vacation isn't stressful enough??!!)

There's lots to read on the subject, if you're interested. (see footnotes)

Any time there are 6 or more people travelling together, for more than a weekend, you need some significant planning, guidelines and designated co-ordinators.

For ease and speed, here's a summary of some of the best advice.

1. Know in advance what the team will paying for and what individuals are responsible for.

2. Put your code of conduct and expectations in writing before you leave.

3. Don't over-schedule. Ensure there is ample individual time and space.

4. Research customs and laws of your destination. Make specific note of regional or religious holidays, events and construction/closures at your destination.

5. Divide the work. Share the load and use your expertise. Think of your team travel excursion as a business trip.

In regards to dividing the work, here's a list to start with. Change/add/delete as applicable. (If others divide the work it lets the coaches coach, and the players play.)

• Transportation co-ordinators/drivers: Make sure we have the right licenses for a 10+passenger van, insurance etc. Get gas. Keep vans clean. 
• Equipment manager:  Have a repair kit. Source needed equipment. Manage storage etc. 
• First aid manager: Have one kit for rink & a second for hotel. One great kit at the hotel is better than 12 mini family kits. Save luggage space & have the right tools. 
• "Team mom": one go-to person who has extra toothbrushes, laundry detergent pods, extra socks, garbage bags. Can mend, source and solve. Emergency snack provider. 
• Discipline: One or two people to enforce code of conduct, solve disagreements, give warnings etc. 
• Player recreation co-ordinator: What day are we going to Carnival? Movies, etc? Is there a team entertainment budget? 
• Player meal co-ordinator: (is this necessary?) Are there team meals outside the pre-paid meal plan? If so, make reservations, identify costs and co-ordinate group payment. (Nothing worse for restaurants than 20 individual bills or a large group showing up unannounced.) 
• Photographer: someone to capture candid moments and team activities on behalf of the players and families. 
• Information officer: Ensure everyone has proper identification for travelling by plane, and documents for travelling without a parent (if necessary). Medical numbers, emergency contact numbers all in one place so we aren't scrambling. 
• Schedule manager: Make sure everyone knows the who/what/where/when of each day's business activities. 
• Facilites manager: To negotiate with the hotel on our behalf, ensure common areas are kept clean and we are the best guests. Help track down lost items. 

Footnotes: (excessive reading on the subject) 

Group Travel Survival Tips

How to Travel With a Group

How to successfully vacation with your 50 closest friends

Your travel first aid kit

Chaperoning tween field trips

Travellers share: when trips go wrong  

More bad travel stories

Airplane Etiquette

Soccer club travel contract

Planning Tip

Here's a planning tip for parents and players:

There is a huge mall within walking distance of our hotel. It is called Capital Gallery/Galeries de la Capitale

There are stores and restaurants that will be really handy for us. (Snacks from Target?)
There's a Tim Hortons for the dads and a Starbucks for the moms :)
There's even an IMAX movie theatre.

Consider bringing gift cards for some of the stores or food outlets, rather then sending/bringing excessive cash or relying solely on a debit card.

There is even a group discount card that we can apply for at mall shops.

When you access the mall web site on your mobile device it will prompt you to add it to your home screen. This would be a great idea for easy navigation on site.

Back to the rink

It felt good to get back to the rink this weekend and get a couple games in. We played Friday night against the Railcats and Saturday night against the Marauders. We managed to come out on top in each of the games. This means we are on a 12 game winning streak, but who's counting?

With tomorrow being back-to-school and a team work out in the evening, we're back in the groove again.

There's lots of work to do before Quebec. But we're Wheat Kings. Hard work doesn't scare us.

What is a Wheat King?

In Brandon, Manitoba.... in the heart of the prairies, to be a Brandon Wheat King, means EVERYTHING!

In our minor hockey system, you earn the privilege of playing for a Wheat King rep team. Hard work, dedication, skill and sportsmanship are some of the qualities we stand for.

Our City has a rich hockey history. There are many current NHL superstars that played their Junior hockey in Brandon. You'll probably recognize names like Brayden Schenn, Eric Fehr, Mark Stone, Colby Robak, Matt Calvert and Travis Hamonic.

Matt Calvert, of the Columbus Blue Jackets grew up in Brandon and played his minor hockey here. In fact, our coach, coached Calvert a few years back.

Our City hosted the 2011 Memorial Cup. What an amazing week that was! Unforgettable.

To learn more about our City, please visit these links.

City of Brandon

Brandon Tourism

Brandon Airport - You can fly here on Westjet! The airport code is YBR. Coincidentally, we will be flying Westjet to the tournament.

You'll learn more about our fabulous sponsors in the weeks to come.

Getting the patch

We got our Quebec patches in the mail and suddenly, the tournament became very real to us. Rhonda, our team manager took our jerseys home and sewed the patches on for everyone. It's a source of pride for us, and a good reminder of where we're going.

It's time to start learning about Quebec, the arena and where we are heading this February.

Official Tourism Site.

The world's largest winter carnival. 

Wikipedia notes on the arena, Colisee Pepsi

Trust me, this will be an adventure.

It took our team to the last minute, of the 5th game, to win the championship. And that's the "never quit, dig deep" attitude that will serve us well in the Quebec International Pee Wee tournament.

We have big plans and big dreams. We're going to show the other teams what it means to be a Brandon Wheat King. We mean business. We live, eat and breathe hockey here on the Canadian prairies. We ride a bus 5 hours, just to play a Friday night in the big city.

We work hard and we have a lot of pride, but we are nothing without the support and guidance of our coaches and parents. So this isn't just a players' journey. It's a total TEAM thing.

You are invited to follow our journey. Get to know our players and coaches and experience this with us.  The journey will be narrated here, by Cathie Crossin, a goalie mom. Not all moms bake cookies, not all dads can skate. We each have a part in this team effort. Cathie will log the stories and capture the moments so the players and coaches can focus on the games.

The next 41 days will go quickly. There's a lot of work to do and we can't wait!