The Yorkton Harvest held their awards banquet recently at the Gallagher Centre.
On top of handing out the various trophies, head coach Jeff Odgers announced that the team will be going through more changes for next season.
They look like they are going to lose at least five defencemen; the only possible returning player would be Brayden Park.
Odgers said that of all the forwards who played this season, there should be four open spots on next year's squad. He said choosing award winners wasn't easy and there were some awards that could have gone to anyone.
"There was a few of them," he told the paper, adding that one of them was the award for top forward, which went to Dakota Odgers.
Coach Odgers said among the awards that were not hard to pick a winner was that for the award for leadership.
"The easy one was the leadership award," he told the press, before adding that this year's winner was the team captain, Josh Lees.
Lees, Tanner LeSann and Dakota Odgers each took home multiple awards that day. On top of the leadership trophy, Lees also won the Cambrian Cup as the Team MVP and the Joel Dennis Memorial Award for leadership.
According to his coach, he was well deserving of the MVP.
"It was," he replied when asked if it was hard to determine a deserving candidate.
"There were guys that had better offensive numbershe (Lees) showed up for practices."
Lees said it was a good night, and may be his last night in Yorkton, too.
"It's fun to hang out (with the guys again) but I hope to play in Weyburn next year," he said of his signing with the SJHL Red Wings.
"I'm really excited," he said. Lees spent two seasons with the Yorkton Harvest, and said he improved his speed while here.
"I got a lot faster, confident. It was good."
Dakota Odgers was named the most dedicated player, the A&W Top Forward Award and the YRHS Scholastic Award. Kody Thue won the Sacred Heart Scholastic Award. LeSann was named Top Scorer and also took the Mr. Hussel Award.
Other winners included: Spencer Bomboir and Taryn Phaneuf co-won the Reg Kachanowski Award for top goaltenders.
The Performance Awards were handed out to: Brayden Park (McDonald's Top Defenceman), Lynnden Pastachak (Norm Lutcher Rookie of the Year Award), Nicholas Pouliot (GX 94 Most Improved Player Award), Jeffrey Ness (Source Embroidery Sportsmanship Award), Jake McMillen (Hometown Cycle Hard Luck Award), Jaden Kreklewich (Park's Jewellery Unsung Hero Award), Levi Morin (Wayne Henley Coaches Choice Award).
Performance awards (sponsors named in parenthesis) were also presented to: Brayden Parks, Top Defenceman (McDonalds); Lynnden Pastachak, Rookie of the Year (Norm Lutcher); Nicholas Pouliot, Most Improved Player (GX 94); Kody Thue, SHHS Scholastic Award (SHHS); Jeffrey Ness, Sportsmanship Award (Source Embroidery); Jake McMillen, Hard Luck Award (Hometown Cycle); Jaden Kreklewich, Unsung Hero Award (Park's Jewellery); Levi Morin, Coaches Choice Award (Wayne Henley).
REGIONALS
The Harvest president Garth Simms told YTW that the team is in the running to try and host a major hockey tournament for the western region coming up in 2014. Simms said 2014 is Saskatchewan's turn to host a Midget AAA tournament which would bring teams from Alberta, Manitoba and northern Ontario to Yorkton for play. He said the team is putting together an application. It is due by April 15, he said.
