Mustang selection tryouts got off to a great start on the weekend, which has more than a few coaches excited about the upcoming season.

Despite having only two tryout sessions, Bantam co-coach Dave Pearson is impressed with the level of play that's been displayed early on.

"The players seem to be taking a different attitude this year," Pearson said. "They are all in pretty good shape, they are getting used to us. We only have four returning players this year, so some of the guys haven't seen our type of practices. We like to keep them high tempo, so some of them are getting used to transitional drills, but overall we are really pleased."

The different levels of rep hockey teams in Whitehorse include Atom, PeeWee, Bantam and Midget players. Atom players are between the ages of Atom nine and 10, while PeeWee hockey members can be either 11 or 12 years old. Bantam players are 13 to 14 years old and midgets can be anywhere between 15 to 18.

More than 40 kids tried out for the Bantam team, which included a number of the players on the 2007 PeeWee rep team.

Besides Pearson, the coaches for the rep team are Jay Glass and Greg Hare.

Pearson said he is looking forward to working with both of them.

"Jay is a real good hockey guy, he really cares about the sport as does Greg Hare," he said. "We just like to infuse some enthusiasm and let the kids have some fun and see where it takes us."

Pearson said the team will be finalized on Sept. 25.

Austin-Turner Davis, 12, is one of the players trying out to make the Bantam Mustangs.

He said so far the tryouts have been going well.

"It's only the second day, but they haven't made any cuts yet," Turner-Davis said. "I know that there is a lot of really good players here, so it is going to be really tough to make the team. I will have to really play hard."