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ONE COMMON GOAL

BY MARIO ANNICCHIARICO

Team BC Head Coach Riley Emmerson has found championship success as a coach at the AAA level, and now he hopes to continue that success with BC Hockey’s Program of Excellence (POE) Male U16 team at the 2024 Western Hockey League (WHL) Cup.

Emmerson led the U15 AAA Fraser Valley Thunderbirds of the British Columbia Elite Hockey League (BCEHL) to a provincial championship during the 2023-24 season. A coach in the BCEHL for the past five seasons, Emmerson made the move to the U18 ranks this past offseason, and now serves as head coach of the U18 AAA Thunderbirds.

Emmerson’s next challenge will be guiding BC Hockey’s POE Male U16 team at the 2024 WHL Cup, set to take place in Red Deer, Alberta, at the Peavey Mart Centrium from October 23-27.

“It’s going to be a great experience. It’s awesome being able to bring a group of guys from different clubs across the province to have one common goal, for Team BC to succeed and do well,” said Emmerson. He has previously spent time behind the bench for BC Hockey’s POE as Team BC’s assistant coach in 2023, a provincial camp coach from 2021-2023 and was a BC Cup coach from 2018-2023.

“All these guys are leaders on their teams, there’s so much talent here so there’s not one main leader,” he said of his Team BC squad. “It’s a group of 20 and they need to hold each other accountable and proceed with a common goal.”

On Team BC’s roster, two players that will be holding each other accountable are forward Jacob Schwartz and defender Koltin Herfst.

Schwartz, who currently plays for Delta Hockey Academy’s U18 team of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL), was the eighth overall selection of the Victoria Royals in the 2024 WHL Draft.

“We have a really strong team and it’ll be cool to see the other provinces and play against guys I’ve never played before.” said Schwartz, a product of Richmond Jets Minor Hockey Association. “Hopefully we can put our best foot forward and win this thing for Team BC. I’m super excited and it should be fun.”

Herfst, the 37th overall pick by the Royals in the 2024 WHL Draft, grew up playing with Chilliwack Minor Hockey Association, and currently plays under Emmerson with the U18 AAA Thunderbirds of the BCEHL.

“You obviously want to compete very hard and make sure your teammates work hard and I hope to be a leader. I’m really proud to represent British Columbia and will do whatever it takes to win the WHL Cup.

“This tournament, coming up, is 100 percent the best of the best and I’m looking forward to proving myself,” said Herfst, who wore the “C” for Emmerson’s U15 Fraser Valley Thunderbirds during the 2023-24 season, is familiar with the POE bench boss. “He’s a great coach, and he loves to make his players better, pushing them to be the best they can be.”

Emmerson, standing at six-foot-eight, commanded attention as an enforcer throughout his playing career, which included minor professional in North America and as a player-coach in Edinburgh. Now he demands attention from behind the bench.

“It’s a tough competition with some really great players.” The sixth-year POE coach said. “I was fortunate to be part of the staff last year as an assistant coach. I’ve seen how the tournament runs, getting my feet wet and how important every game is. Coming together as a team right away is huge and we need to get them to buy in for that one common goal. Once they do that, it should be fantastic.”

In the tournament’s format, one cannot afford to start slowly, offered Emmerson.

“We have to set the tone of how we play early in that first Manitoba game. In this tournament, you can’t afford to take a shift off. If you do, it’s in the back your net. You set the tone of how you want to play and you can’t deviate from it at all. You need great goaltending and special teams need to be good and if they are, you’ve got a good chance of winning.”

Mario Annicchiarico is a freelance writer based in Victoria who has previously covered the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers, as well as the Western Hockey League.