As we roll into fall, minor hockey is right around the corner and most teams are reporting good numbers so far. 

Sarah Crawford, the registrar for Steinbach Minor Hockey, says around 211 kids have signed up for hockey from initiation all the way up to midget. She notes their highest numbers are in the novice, atom and peewee age groups and says they can attribute that to the continuing growth in the area. 

Crawford adds The First Shift was a success with full registration in its inaugural year last year, but she notes they just don't have enough volunteers to facilitate it this year.      

"We just decided not to run The First Shift out of Steinbach this year. Other associations will be running it so the opportunity for kids to learn how to skate and how to get involved with hockey is still open for them just not out of Steinbach this year."

Many neighbouring communities and hockey associations would like to see The First Shift program come back because it's a great cost effective way for young kids to try the game before registering for minor hockey. 

In Mitchell Minor Hockey, Rick Penner says it's been a very interesting year for registrations. 

"There have been many years where I thought 'why are we not getting new kids coming to sign up?' For the most part, we’re often seeing the same names year after year. I think this year is probably the biggest single-year jump that I’ve seen in new names signing up for hockey that either moved into our area or haven’t played hockey before. We have quite a few new kids signing up which I think we should see more of that given the growth in this area but this year is quite a bit more noticeable than any other year."

Penner says registration in their novice, atom and peewee age groups are very strong noting they have three teams in each level. He adds for the bantam and midget level, many players are currently skating with other programs so they're waiting another week to see if those players make those teams or if they're coming back to Mitchell. Penner notes bantam and midget numbers are usually lower but he says that's because, at that age, players are either playing at a higher level, busy with other school sports or jobs. 

Kendall Neufeld of Grunthal Minor Hockey says they have 117 players registered but he notes this year has been difficult to find coaches and referees.

"That is actually our biggest struggle, just trying to find volunteers to run everything. We just had our meeting yesterday and talking to our ref in chief we only have four or five referees and the youngest is probably our ref in chief."

Neufeld adds numbers in the midget group are quite low but the bantam team is surprisingly large. He says all in all numbers are going up which he notes is good for the years to come.