The South Island Thunderbirds

The South Island Thunderbirds team is one of 11 teams participating in the BC Major Midget League. This league was established in 2004 to provide elite level 15, 16 and 17 year olds an opportunity to play within their own age group at a high level and be developed and prepared for junior hockey leagues and beyond.  The top six teams advance to the league’s playoffs in March with the champion then facing Alberta’s playoff winner for the right to compete as the Pacific representative in the National Midget Championship (the “Telus Cup”).

The Thunderbirds’ schedule will take the team to the Lower Mainland (Vancouver/Richmond), Burnaby, Langley, Abbotsford/Chilliwack and Ridge Meadows), Nanaimo, Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna and the Kootenays with 20 away games and 20 home games in the regular season.

For the 2011-12 season, the Thunderbirds’ home games will be played at various venues including Bear Mountain Arena, the Victoria Racquet Club’s arena in the Ian Stewart Complex at the University of Victoria and Panorama Recreation Centre. The team will practice out of Bear Mountain and Jdf, with home at Bear Mountain.

The head coach for the Thunderbirds for the 2010-11 season is Max Young.  Max brings a wealth of experience to the team having coached most recently in the BC Hockey High Performance Program (U16 and U17).   This will be Max's third year coaching in the BC Major Midget League..  Max is currently the head instructor of the expanding Parkland Hockey Academy.   Assistant coaches are Scott Hawthorne, and James Gaertner.  The team manager is Ron Walchuk. The team trainer and conditioning coach is Jeff Compton.

Max and the entire coaching staff are looking forward to a successful year for the Thunderbirds.