Lucas Punkari
Local netminder Mark Loveday is looking to put his foot in the door towards the next step in hockey career this week in Chicago, as the 14-year old will be taking part in the 2011 USHL Combine for 1996 and 1997 birth year players.
“I’m really excited about heading down to the camp,” Loveday enthused.
“I’ve been preparing for it all summer long and now that it is finally here, I can’t wait to get down there,” Loveday added.
Loveday, who is currently plying his trade for Shattuck—St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minnesota, will be taking part in five games during the course of the combine, which will start on Friday and last until Sunday.
“They kind of have it set up like a tournament,” Loveday explained.
“There’s going to be 16 teams there so there’s going to be a lot of hockey during the day, and once we get off of the ice we will be doing some dry-land training and stuff like that, so we are going to be really busy.
“It’s going to be a long week there, but it is what it is,” Loveday reasoned.
With a lack of ice available in Fort Frances during the summer months, Loveday made his way down to the Shattuck-St. Mary’s campus twice during the off-season to attend a pair of week long goaltending camps, to help prepare him for the combine.
“The coaches there were just helping me to address some stuff that I needed to improve on,” Loveday explained.
“Things such as getting faster with my skating and getting more comfortable with moving the puck were the main things that I did, as that is something that the teams at the combine like to see from young goalies,” Loveday explained.
While Loveday is set to return to Shattuck-St. Mary’s for the upcoming season, he hopes that this weekend’s combine in the Windy City will be something that pushes him towards his long term goal of playing in D-I hockey.
“I just hope to go down there and do my best, and maybe come out of the weekend talking to a team and see what they would like to do for next season,” Loveday said.
“And hopefully if I have a really good showing, that will be good enough to help me get selected in the USHL draft next year,” he stressed.
