10-BANTAM DRAFT
Eastman Selects playing the Brandon Wheat Kings Sunday afternoon

Over 200 of Manitoba's best 13 and 14 year-old hockey players gathered at Steinbach's T.G. Smith Centre for the Manitoba Hockey AAA Bantam Showcase weekend.

There were 25 games played throughout the weekend, with 12 teams showing up from around the province and Northwestern Ontario.

Despite Eastman not having an official AAA Bantam team, they were one of the top squads. They lost their opening game against the Winnipeg Monarachs 5-2 and then won their next three, defeating Interlake 5-4, Northwestern Ontario 5-1 and Brandon 6-1.

"I'm very happy with the tournament," says the Selects Team Manager Dan Zarazun. "Overall the hockey was outstanding. We had great showing from fans and great support from the local community. From the Eastman Selects perspective our boys really came together and started to play better and better as the weekend went on."

In order for Eastman to participate in these AAA Bantam Showcase weekends, the region selects the best players from their five local teams in Manitoba's AA Bantam Hockey League; Southeast Blizzard, Seine River Snipers, Southwest Jets, Northern Knights and the Springfield Hawks.  

Zarazun says there are talks of having a permanent AAA team in the southeast, but in the meantime these showcase weekends are a great development tool to provide exposure for the players.

"I had a conversation with a number of scouts, and they were all very impressed with what they saw." says Zarazun. "There are some very talented individuals at there not just from Eastman, but from the entire province."

St. Adolphe's Adam Touchette was the only Eastman player to be selected to the Showcase's All-Star Team at the end of the weekend. Touchette along with Lorrette's Boedey Vaeth, Steinbach's Darby Gula, Niverville's Owen Loyola an Braeden Binda all received player of the game awards.

This was the second year Steinbach was host to the AAA  Bantam Showcase and Zarazun says he was again overwhelmed by all the community support.

"I would like to thank the parent group. To run an event this this takes an incredible amount of effort. When you consider that there are five communities of parents coming together to put this on, they need a pat on the back because they did a fabulous job."