At least one member of last year’s championship-winning Campbell River Storm who moved on from the squad has continued on in hockey and is getting along well with his new team.
Forward Josiah Friesen, having played out his eligible years in the VIJHL, left Campbell River for Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, Sask.
“I was contacted by (head coach) Jaime (Ramer) in the summer about coming here to play hockey,” he said in an article by Briercrest Athletics. “I kept praying about it and kept kicking it around in the mack of my mind as a really cool opportunity.”
Part of what made that opportunity so cool for Friesen was the chance to both study and continue playing hockey somewhere his faith would be given a chance to grow.
“What sets Briercrest’s hockey team apart is our mission,” he says. “We care about the spiritual well-being of ourselves and our opponents and actively pursue conversations that encourage spiritual growth,” which is an important part of his life.
Friesen is currently enrolled in Briercrest’s Certificate of Biblical Studies program, but is also taking courses in kinesiology, working towards his goal of a career in physiotherapy, an extension of his love of athletics.
His tenacious forecheck and speed is a welcome addition to a Briercrest team that plays in the competitive Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference alongside teams from much larger hockey centres like Red Deer College, Keyano College in Fort McMurray, as well as both MacEwan University and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton.
–with files by Jeremy Demoskoff