Going up against the best players in the province in Regina over the Easter weekend was just what Maymont鈥檚 Ashton Harris hoped it would be.
Other than a nasty illness that he came down with just as the SaskFirst bantam tournament began.
鈥淢y family was starting to get sick the day before the tournament so I was hoping that I wouldn鈥檛 catch it,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淯nfortunately, I ended up getting sick when the weekend began, so that changed things a bit.
鈥淥verall though, I felt like I still played pretty well. I did well on the face-offs and played well on defence, and I tried to make as many hard hits as I could. However, it gets to be a little bit tough to do that as well as you would like when you don鈥檛 have quite as much energy as you usually do.鈥�
The 14-year-old forward was on a team with number of players from the north region of the province.
They finished in sixth place at the tournament with a record of 1-2-1.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 play quite as well as we had at a tune-up tournament in December,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淭he communication and chemistry that we had then just wasn鈥檛 there over the weekend.
鈥淲hen you have more scouts coming out to watch, there鈥檚 some jitters that鈥檚 for sure, but I think I was able to do a good job of blocking that out as well as I could.鈥�
Having the chance to take part in the tournament was an added bonus for Harris, who was part of a Battleford Barons team that picked up on;y one win in the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League this season.
鈥淚t was a pretty tough year so to be able to go to the SaskFirst tournament was a pretty nice reward,鈥� said Harris, who has seven points for the Barons this year. 鈥淭here are lot of players who already signed with Midget AAA teams for next season, so it was good to be up against that competition.
鈥淓ven though our season wasn鈥檛 the greatest, I was able to develop a lot as a player with the Barons. I was able to have quite a lot of ice time and lots of time with the puck, which was great for me.鈥�
Harris had a nice warm-up event prior to going to Regina, as he took part in the Battlefords North Stars spring prospect camp two weeks ago.
聽鈥淭hat was a really good experience,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really fun to see where you are at against much older guys and what you have to work on in order to make it to that level.
鈥淚deally, I would like to play for the Midget AAA Stars next year, but that might be a bit of a stretch for me right away so I鈥檓 hoping to make it on the Midget AA Barons roster. During the summer, I鈥檒l be working on getting in better shape to achieve that goal.鈥澛�
