There will be high expectations on the Whitehorse Mustangs midget AA rep team as they open the new hockey season this month.

Buoyed by new additions from last year's bantam rep squad, which won silver at the B.C. provincials, as well as key veterans and a proven goaltender, there should be no excuses for the team this year and hopefully less headaches for the coaching staff.

'This team has the potential to have everything,' stated coach Joe Martin, in an interview following Saturday's tryout session. 'Leadership, guys who can put the puck in the net, good goaltending...this should be a great team.'

Everyone knows what looks good on paper doesn't always translate to the ice surface, so Martin and co-coach Mike Young will be careful in selecting the right players for the midget team, regardless of age or what they accomplished last season.

While there were previous ice times for the midget hopefuls last month, this past weekend provided the coaches with their first real look at what they can choose from.

Both Martin and Young said they were somewhat disappointed with Saturday's tryout, not because of the clearly high talent level, but rather an apparent lack of conditioning.

Martin has always put an emphasis on conditioning, as last year's midget players can attest.

'I think some people think they have a locked position,' said Martin, before pointing out there were still a couple more tryouts to go. 'I'm sure they'll step it up.'

'Some of the guys showed up in really good shape, but some of the others certainly have a lot more to prove if they want to be playing on this team this year,' added Young.

Still, there were plenty of positives on the weekend, as the coaches enjoyed the highest number of players attending midget tryouts in years. And it was a good mix of veteran players and rookies, said Martin, pushing each other throughout the practices.

It's obvious there will be some tough cuts to make following the final tryout this evening, as everyone agrees the strength of this year's squad will be depth.

'We've got a lot of speed and pretty good size,' said Young. 'We've also got a lot of motivation, because we're going to be hosting (the provincial midget AA championships) this year, so there's going to be a lot of emotion.'

JJ Stuckey is one of the veterans that will be counted on in the upcoming season.

Stuckey said he was impressed with a lot of the first-year midgets Saturday, but believes some of them still have a lot to learn.

'The first full game they get, with full contact, a lot of them are going to realize it's not a cake walk like last year,' he said.

Stuckey agreed that speed should be another strong point of this year's team, as well as depth and skill.

'Offensively, it looks like we're actually going to do pretty good. Even I'm scoring a couple goals,' he laughed. 'Goaltending is going to be great this year, too. That's one huge step up for us right now, we have a consistent goalie (Ian Perrier, last year's bantam starter).

'We have pretty mentally strong people on the team and I think we have a really good mix of speed and good goal scorers. We just have to learn how to put it all together.'

That's where the coaching staff will come in and Stuckey said he has complete faith in Martin and Young.

'They're not old, so they're still learning how to do stuff, too. All of the coaches have all their stuff together this year.'

The biggest thing may be good communication between the players, added Stuckey, which is something he said didn't happen last year. If they can get that down pat, he believes they have a good shot at provincial gold, although he was hesitant to look that far ahead.

'That's a long way away. We have to take it one game at a time. We have to focus on every single second in every single game before that.

'Hosting will be a big advantage though. I can't not see this arena being filled and that's such a huge boost. Even when Alaska was here last year, looking up in the crowd and seeing everyone cheering for us was such a great feeling. We used that in the games.'

Both Martin and Young said winning provincials is the only long-term goal the team will set this year, as well as helping develop the players for their hockey careers Outside after this season.

'Every tournament we go into, it's just a stepping stone for provincials,' stated Young.

The first tournament for the midget Mustangs will be a series in Anchorage in just a couple of weeks, against their Alaskan counterparts. The team's roster will be decided after the final tryout session this evening.

The coaching staff is only allowed to dress 19 players, but they expect to have a larger practice squad.

The bantam and peewee rep squads also held tryouts over the weekend at Takhini Arena and both will also be dealing with major roster changes this season, as veterans move on and rookies move in.

Head coach Dave Pearson was very pleased with the turnout at the peewee tryouts, with close to 30 players hitting the ice.

'We had a good response and the kids were highly energetic. We have some pretty good talent, actually.'

Pearson said the majority of the team this season will be first-years, so realistically, the main goal will be concentrating on skills and teaching the players hockey at a higher level. But, he said, that doesn't mean they should be taken lightly.

'We're going to compete. We have some excellent skaters on this team. The power skating program in Whitehorse is excellent. It's very key at that age to use the program and it's obvious most of these kids have been.

'And some of them can really handle the puck, too. We're going to surprise some people. They're very smart kids, they know the game.'

While there seems to be a shortage in goaltenders throughout the Whitehorse Minor Hockey Association system, Pearson said he's extremely happy with Brad Gustafson, who will start in net for the peewee rep squad.

'Brad is a second-year goalie and he looks like he's going to have a great year. We've got a great goalie.'

Pearson and assistant coaches Jim Stephens and Andrew Bechtel have put together a tentative roster for this year and will have a final travel roster ready in the next couple of weeks.

Coaching the bantam Mustangs this season will be Mike and Dan Johnson.

The bantam crew will also experience quite the turnover, as more than half of last year's team moved up to the midget level.

The bantam and midget Mustangs will be gearing up for the 2006 Arctic Winter Games (AWG), which will be held in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula next March.

Unfortunately, there will be no peewee category at next year's Games.

Tryouts for bantams, midgets and the female AWG team will be held in December.

The AWG will be followed by the provincial championships for all three levels just a week later.

While Whitehorse will host the midget provincials, the bantams and peewees will be making the trek down south, in hopes of claiming their respective championships.