Just who was the most valuable player on their team, a squad that posted a 23-12-0 record in their first-ever season of Canadian Sport School Hockey League play?
In the end, the choice made perfect sense – share the Kevin Smyth Most Valuable Player honour between two of their most dynamic standouts in forward Atley Calvert and goaltender Chase Coward.
The duo were among 14 players honoured during the PHA awards banquet and ceremony in Caronport on Saturday night.
“It’s awesome, I couldn’t have done it without my teammates and Chase is an awesome guy so it’s an honour to share it with Chase,” said Calvert, who led the Cougars in goals with 24 and 41 points in 35 games this past season.
Coward – who posted a 13-4-0 record with a 2.71 goals against average and .911 save percentage -- felt much the same way.
“It’s a pretty surreal feeling, really, a lot of guys on the team deserved it,” he said. “But to be picked with Atley is a great honour.”
Both players are two-year veterans of the PHA program, suiting up in 2017-18 in the Academy’s first season and then moving up to the Elite 15 ranks when the Cougars were accepted into the CSSHL.
“The first year was amazing and the second year just got ramped up even more,” Calvert said. “It’s unreal what these guys are teaching and I really enjoyed my time here.”
To put together the kind of season they did such a tough league and against so many high-level programs made the campaign all the more special in Coward’s eyes.
“It was a really good year, we proved to the league that we belonged and we should have a couple of pretty strong teams to compete the next couple of years coming up,” he said.
Both players also talked about how the PHA program – with its heavy focus on academics at Briercrest Christian Academy alongside hockey – changed them as players and as individuals.
“I’ve grown a lot character-wise and skill-wise, I used to play house before I came here and now I’m with a (Western Hockey League) team,” said Coward, who was listed by the Red Deer Rebels in December. “And in the gym it shows, too, it shows what happens when you put in the work.”
Calvert’s WHL affiliation is a little closer by – the Moose Jaw Warriors listed him shortly after the past Bantam Draft, and he plans to suit up for the local AAA squad this winter alongside a host of his current teammates.
“The last two years have really helped me get into it with the AAA team next year so it’s going to be great to be a part of it,” he said. “We have 10 of our guys from here, so it’s going to be a lot of fun, kind of like part two.”
Calvert shared the Ryan Smyth Top Forward award with fellow highly touted prospect Kirkland Mullen (21-22-43) while Coward picked up the Elite 15 Randy Brownlee Top Goaltender award.
Development and improvement was also the name of the game for the Midget Varsity MVP, as Colton Aikens scored twice and added 17 points while also claiming the team’s Adam Lawson Top Defensive Player award.
“It feels good, there could have been other players who could have won the award, but it was just working hard as I could for the boys, it was just a good year overall,” Aikens said. “Just going on the ice every single day really helps, it makes those bonds with all your teammates and all your coaches, just everything about the team is amazing.”
It certainly didn’t hurt to have the season turn out the way it did, as the Cougars reached the Midget Varsity league championship final after a 15-8-1 campaign.
“We went on a 13-game winning streak at the end of the season and every single game felt absolutely amazing,” Aikens said. “We beat the Pilot Butte Buffaloes (at the championship tournament) after losing to them six times in a row, so that was pretty awesome, too.”
The full list of award winners pictured above is as follows:
Josh Warkentin (back left, Randy Brownlee top goaltender, Midget Varsity), Evan Callaghan (John Barkman Leadership Award, Elite 15), Ryley Gross (Barkman Leadership Award, Midget Varsity), Ethan Peters (Chad Gustafson Academic Award, Elite 15), Chase Coward (Brownlee Top Goaltender, Kevin Smyth Most Valuable Player, Elite 15), Max Wanner (Adam Lawson Top Defenceman, Elite 15), Hunter Weber (front left, J.J. Hunter Most Improved, Elite 15), Josh Prebushewski (Hunter Most Improved, Midget Varsity), Owen Neubeker (Stephen Clements Hardest Worker, Elite 15), Mikkel Hrechka (Clements Hardest Worker, Midget Varsity), Colton Aikens (Lawson Top Defenceman, Smyth Most Valuable Player, Midget Varsity), Noah Wills (Gustafson Academic Award, Ryan Smyth Top Forward, Midget Varsity), Kirk Mullen (Ryan Smyth Top Forward Award, Elite 15), Atley Calvert (Smyth Top Forward, Smyth Most Valuable Player, Elite 15).
