It may not be the world juniors just yet, but several young Yukoners proved they belong on the big stage at a hockey camp in B.C. last weekend.

Bantam goaltender Ian Perrier, defencemen Alex McDougall and Nick Swizdaryk, and forwards Kane Dawe, Drew Pettitt, Ted Stephens and Lowell Johnston travelled to Mackenzie for the British Columbia Amateur Hockey Association's Northeast Zone Best Ever U16 tryout camp.

'I thought it would be a good experience,' said Johnston in an interview after bantam rep team practice Tuesday evening. 'I thought it would be fun to go down there and do everything, and I thought I had a good chance of making it.'

Sixty kids attended the camp from Prince George, Williams Lake, Dawson Creek, Quesnel, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Whitehorse. After two days or drills and scrimmages, four Yukon players were selected to the squad Perrier, Pettitt, Stephens and Johnston.

'I thought it was pretty tough,' said Pettitt of the competition. 'There were a lot of good players, so we had to battle through it.

'I never gave up. It was 110 per cent every shift, every practice. I did all I could.'

'I thought I skated really hard and made my shots that counted,' added Johnston. 'I just worked well with my linemates and showed the scouts and people that worked there how I play.'

In the three games played on Sunday at the camp, Whitehorse players scored seven of the 18 goals and Perrier let just one goal in. Stephens recorded a hat trick in one of the games while Johnston notched a pair of goals and Pettitt and Dawe each potted one.

'I felt like I can compete with all of them and that I'm just as good as them,' Stephens smiled when asked about his hat trick.

For Dawe, McDougall and Swizdaryk, it was a valuable experience even though they didn't make the team, giving them tons of new confidence. Swizdaryk said he learned he should give 110 per cent all of the time in order to fare better at tournaments, as well as work on his lateral movement.

McDougall pointed out that most defencemen at the camp were AAA bantam players while the Yukoners are AA.

'But we were still right up with the pack. It was really tight. I think me and Nick were pretty close to making it. We were on the bubble, but we never got picked.'

Perrier, who got a good chance to watch everyone when he wasn't in net, said he was proud of all seven players, especially the ones who didn't make the cut.

'The guys who worked the hardest were the guys that didn't make the team. And they had a good attitude. Even after they came out of the interviews, they were still smiling and saying they kind of knew they weren't going to make it.'

Perrier, who is the only goaltender on the bantam A rep team, said he was glad to have the full support of his teammates as well.

'The guys were saying they thought it was a sure shot that I was going to be on the team and that really picked me up during the tryouts and made me feel a lot better.'

Perrier was up against six other goalies at the camp, including one from Prince George who also made the team. He said when he went to the tryout, he just concentrated on trying his hardest and always putting in that second effort.

'A lot of the goalies there, if they were getting goals scored on them, they were banging their sticks, complaining and stuff. At some points, I sucked too, but I just tried to put that behind me.

'When they told me that I made the team, it was a big surprise. I thought it was pretty close between all of us. But in the games we all played three games each, where we divided up the periods some of the goalies seemed to collapse under the pressure, I guess. They started making stupid mistakes that they wouldn't make in a regular game. I just tried to calm myself down during that period of time.'

Both Pettitt and Johnston thought Perrier played really well, perhaps the best they've seen him do yet.

'We'd pretty much win all the time if he played like that at our tournaments,' laughed Pettitt.

Lowell also gave props to his linemates Stephens and Dawe, for helping him pick up two goals. Overall, he said, it gave everyone a lot of confidence heading home, as Pettitt agreed.

'Up until then, we hadn't really been tested skill wise. We didn't know what we could accomplish, But after that, we know that we have people with a lot of talent that can go places. So, I think it was a good boost.

'Usually, you don't hear many players from the Yukon going anywhere with hockey,' added Johnston. 'So, it was a good boost to all the Yukoners that are playing hockey.'

The four Yukoners will now compete in Salmon Arm at the 2005 Best Ever U16 Cup April 14-17, against the top 160 players representing eight regional teams in B.C. Team Island, Team Greater Vancouver, Team Fraser River/Delta, Team Fraser Valley, Team Okanagan, Team Kootenay, Team Northwest and Team Northeast.

The U16 program is designed to introduce players born in 1990 to the British Columbia Amateur Hockey Association's High Performance Program, exposing players, coaches and officials to short-term competition. The U16 program also acts as a precursor to the U17 program, which is used to identify and train players and team personnel for provincial, regional and national teams.

'I think we all decided to go to the best ever camp to further out hockey experience and making this team is the first step to a higher calibre of hockey, like junior A or junior B,' said Perrier, adding making the team takes a load off his shoulders, in what will be a big year for him.

The second-year bantam plans to try out for the midget AAA District Tracker Flyers in Fort St. John, where four Yukoners currently play, next year.

'And then maybe second or third year midget, I'm going to try as hard as I can to get scouted by a bigger team and maybe even go to Notre Dame or the Edge in Calgary,' he explained. 'My long-term goal is to make the NHL. So I'm going to try as hard as I can to do that.'

Before he takes a shot at Fort St. John, Perrier and the rest of his bantam rep teammates will be going for gold at the B.C. championships in March. And all of them feel last weekend's camp helped them prepare for the challenge.

'Lots of the good players that are going to be playing in provincials, some of them didn't even make it (the U16 best ever squad), so, for players from the Yukon, that's pretty good,' said Johnston.

Perrier agreed the team has a legitimate shot at gold.

'All four of the guys who made the team are really good and there's still really good hockey players on the team that didn't try out.

'Our team is really well balanced. Our defence is strong, our forwards know where each other are at all times on the ice and our players aren't scared to go into the corners.'

Over the next several weeks before provincials, the players will be working on their skating skills, as well as adding some size.

'Size was a key factor (at the camp),' said Pettitt. 'We were some of the shortest guys there.'

He said the players plan to eat more, go to the gym three times a week and do a lot more dry-land training.

Some notable B.C.-born NHL hockey players who who have competed in the program include; Joe Sakic (Team Lower Mainland 1985), Scott Niedermayer and Rob Niedermayer (Team Kootenay 1989 and 1990), Paul Kariya (Team Lower Mainland 1990), Adam Deadmarsh (Team Kootenay 1991) and Jason Weimer (Team Kootenay 1992).