(Photo by Kaiden Brayshaw/The Press)
Game day on college campuses are often accompanied by shouts and cheers. On the SAIT campus, the only “buzz” on game day comes from the cranes, bulldozers and drills in the Taylor Family Centre redevelopment site.
SAIT will be without a hockey arena until a new one is built as part of a campus redevelopment ongoing until late 2027. SAIT’s hockey team, the Trojans, haven’t played on campus since 2023.
In the interim, the men’s and women’s hockey teams practise and play home games at WinSport, a facility in southwest Calgary.
Tyler Drader has coached the SAIT Trojans men’s hockey team since 2019. Drader believes his team has done well through what he calls a “not ideal” situation.
“Obstacles are always going to be varied—(you) have to find different solutions. Once we knew we weren’t going to be there, it was just about trying to make the best of the new situation,” he said.
The Trojans men’s and women’s teams are two of many users vying for ice time at WinSport.
“WinSport has been a little more challenging, and the fact that we have to go before school or at night,” Drader said. “At SAIT, we could essentially pick whatever ice time we wanted (and) game times were always whatever we wanted them to be.”
The team stores their gear at the WinSport facility. Players move their gear from the storage room to a locker room for their games and practices.
“We’re still able to keep our equipment at the rink… So, it’s not like guys are having to lug their gear all the way home,” said Zach Cain, Trojans team captain.
Because of the shared ice and players’ school schedule, the team practices early in the morning on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
“We only do it twice a week, so it’s manageable,” said Cain. “It gets guys up early, as opposed to sleeping in, and kind of just building good habits early on.”
After morning practice, most players head straight to campus for class.
“To go along with the 6:15 (AM) practices, guys usually have to leave right away. The dressing room is kind of where you build a lot of the camaraderie that you want with a team. So that’s kind of another challenge,” said Cain.
Every top 10 team in the Men’s Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) hockey standings has an on-campus arena, other than SAIT. Drader believes the Trojans arena situation does not hinder recruiting, but admits some players weren’t thrilled with the early starts.
“There’s a lot of guys that just don’t want to get up at 5am to practice,” he said. “SAIT is still a sought-after school. Calgary is a great place to live.”
Arena situation aside, SAIT’s men’s hockey team is in first place in the ACAC. Drader credits their success to his team “focusing on what they control.”
“We have access to a gym. We’ve got ice. We’ll have practice,” he said.
As for the Trojans eventual home, Coach Drader hopes his influence might be felt.
“(They) did invite me to kind of look at some plans, and I had made a couple suggestions, some of which they did,” he said. “But ultimately, engineers and all of that at once make those decisions, right?”
