Perseverance has paid off for a homegrown Okotoks Oilers.
Okotoks Oilers graduate Gibb Coady put pen to paper on his commitment to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons to take the next step in his hockey career at the Division III level.
I obviously wanted to showcase myself as much as I could after being hurt for most of the year,” Coady said. “So it was emotionally tough because we didn’t really play (much) this year.But the games that I got to play I thought I did well.
“And it turned into something good like this. I’m very excited for this, it’s a pretty good opportunity for myself.”
Coady, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound forward, registered 37 points in 87 games over parts of three seasons with the hometown Oilers.
After a career best 10 goals and 21 points in his rookie campaign, followed up with 7 points in 13 playoff games in 2018-19, Coady’s second and third seasons were cut short due to injury and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the league schedule.
In his third and final campaign, the 20-year-old was held to just four games of regular season action.
“I had been talking to them since around March and talking to them through my coach Tyler Deis,” he said. “I ultimately decided on them as the best option for what I should do.
“Probably the number-one thing is they have a brand new facility, a $60-million facility, a brand new rink, and brand new facilities with a dressing room, work out room,” Coady said.
Other factors included the success of the program under Steve Freeman who just completed his 25th season behind the Falcons bench.
The Falcons are three-time national champions and have won the conference title 14 times in the program’s history. Wisconsin-River Falls had the top record in the conference in 2020-21.
“There’s six teams in that conference, they’re all in Wisconsin and the farthest trip is about five hours away,” Coady added. “It shouldn’t be much different than playing in the AJ the last three years. It’s a pretty good conference too from what I’ve heard.”
Okotoks Oilers forward Gibb Coady collides with an Olds Grizzly in an exhibition game at Pason Centennial Arena on Oct. 30, 2020. (Brent Calver/Western Wheel)Though game action was scarce in 2020-21, development opportunities were plentiful in Big Rock Country.
Practice, skill development and fitness training were all increasingly part of the picture.
“We got to practice a ton this year,” he said. “Just skills-wise, speed-wise I got to really work on that this year because we had a ton of just practising over and over again. Reid Hnatowich, our skills (coach) we did a lot with him, like every day throughout the year. My skills really developed a lot this year.
“And not playing very much I got to work out throughout the year and got to put on a bit of weight, about 10 pounds.”
Coady will study business management at the university, located just east of the Twin Cities in Minnesota on the western edge of Wisconsin.
“I’m very excited to get to go somewhere else and experience something else other than Okotoks and Calgary,Alberta,” Coady said. “It should be pretty cool to be able to do that and I know my family is also super excited to be able to see me go off and do something that I love to do and go to school while doing it.”
Rookie rewarded
One of Okotoks’ top freshman skaters earned a national invite.
University of Denver commit Rieger Lorenz was named to Hockey Canada’s U18 team summer development camp as one of 45 invitees and the lone player in the CJHL to earn the nod.
Lorenz, a 2004-born forward from Calgary, tallied 3 points in 7 games for Okotoks in 2020-21 after starring for the Edge School for Athletes the year prior in the CSSHL with an impressive 72 points in 35 games.
The camp runs July 25-Aug. 4 at the Tsuut’ina Nation’s Seven Chiefs Sportsplex.
