Port Alberni hockey player Beaudean Wilson is waiting this week to see if he gets an invitation to the regional Under-17 hockey tryouts.
If selected, Wilson, 16, could possibly play for Team Pacific in the World Under-17 Hockey Championships in Winnipeg next December.
Wilson was one of five Port Alberni midget-age players who attended the district tryouts in Lake Cowichan and the only one to make the team.
BC Hockey held camps in six locations across the province. Wilson made the first cut, playing on the Island team in a four-day tournament in Salmon Arm. His team, the Stars, won the BC Under-17 championships.
Another Port Alberni hockey product, Jared Crema, made the same team in 2008. Crema this year played for the expansion Dawson Creek Rage of the North American Hockey League.
Of the 120 players who competed in the Salmon Arm tournament, BC Hockey will select 20 players to go to a regional tryout in Calgary later this month. Alberta will also send 20 players; from those 40 players, the Team Pacific squad will be formed.
Wilson learned to skate on an outdoor rink in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, when he was three years old, said his father, Brent. He has been playing hockey almost as long.
When the World Under-17 Hockey Championships were staged in the Alberni Valley in 2009, Wilson was an enthusiastic spectator, said Brent.
While Beaudean doesn’t have any illusions about playing for the National Hockey League, “he’s driven,” says Brent. “He’s just looking to go forward in hockey.”
Wilson played left wing and centre for the Alberni Valley Midget Bulldogs this past season and is eligible to play two more years of midget.
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