NEWS

(pictured - Curtis Harvey was thrust into the Newmarket Hurricane's leadership role despite only joining the team last January - photo credit:  Brian Watts/OJHL Images)

Since their improbable run to the Buckland Cup Finals in 2012-13, it’s been an up and down time for the Newmarket Hurricanes organization and this season is no different. They beat teams they shouldn’t, and lose games they should win, but that can be part of the game when your roster is fairly young.

“It can be frustrating”, said Hurricanes head coach Brian Perrin, “we have a lot of 1996 and ’97 born players and a couple of those guys in their first year are coming right out of midget.”

With a roster so young, teams would normally turn to a seasoned veteran who has been with the club for an extended period of time. The Hurricanes however are without a single 20-year-old, and only have five returning 19-year-olds on the roster, giving Perrin and his staff a short list of players to choose from.

“We decided that we were going to go really young, and Curtis was one of the returning guys and he is just the type of kid that does a lot of little things in the dressing room and a lot of little things on the ice. He was a natural pick to have as the Captain and he’s done a great job for us”.

Curtis Harvey, a native of Keswick, Ontario, was handed the reigns to a young Hurricanes team despite the fact that he hadn’t played a full season with Newmarket. Yes he is a returning player this year, but only joined the club in January 2014, coming over from the Brockville Braves of the Central Junior Hockey League.

“I was really excited,” said Harvey when asked about receiving the ‘C’ at the beginning of the season.  “It just goes to show you how much I appreciate the coaches and how much they appreciate my dedication and my hard work. It’s one of my main features; I like to get into the corners and give it all.”

That hard-nose, give-it-all type of style is exactly what Perrin wants from this young group of players, and having a hard working veteran like Harvey makes it easier on the coaching staff to get messages across to some of the younger players who may not buy into the system right away.

“He does a great job with that, you always want a guy to be the coach in the room and he is a student of the game,” said Perrin, “he does a great job relaying to the rest of the team if they don’t understand something, I couldn’t ask for more.”

“To me being a leader means helping along the younger guys,” explained Harvey, “because we have a really young core and a few veterans, helping those young guys along on and off the ice whether it’s with school or just doing a bunch of other things in practice; it really goes a long way helping them to play in this league.”

The Hurricanes won’t tell you that this season is a rebuilding year, rather it was a mere 're-tool' with a focus on the future, while not giving up on the present. The season hasn’t been a winning one, but it also has not been a losing season either. 

“It’s been hit and miss so far this year”, said the Captain.  “We got a nice corps group of young guys and I think we could go a long way. We are starting to come together as a team, the young guys are starting to work together and we are feeling good about our chances.”

Whether this group can make an impact this season in the playoffs or if they’ll have to wait until next year when the corps is one year older, the Hurricanes organization under the leadership of Perrin is set up to be competitive for the foreseeable future. 

As for Harvey’s future, he hopes to be a member of the Hurricanes till the end of his junior career, and is looking for an NCAA scholarship post-junior. 

“It should be every kids dream to play in the NCAA,” said Harvey with a smile on his face.

As for being the leader of a young group of guys, Harvey could only laugh and grin when asked about the biggest thing some of the guys have asked him for advice on.

“A couple of the guys have approached me about girlfriend problems, that’s about it.”

Rino Mattucci covers the OJHL North Division for In The O... and more articles by the author can be found at intheoradio.com. In The O...goes beyond conventional coverage of junior hockey providing unprecedented coverage of Minor Midget, OJHL, CCHL and the OHL.