Yukon midget hockey players who wish to pursue the sport further now have an alternative route to follow.

A Major Midget zone team has been formed in northeast B.C. and Yukon for the 2004-2005 hockey season.

At the 2003-2004 British Columbia Amateur Hockey Association (BCAHA) annual general meeting, a motion was passed where zone teams would be formed to compete in the Midget AAA Division.

'We offer kids from the North a way to play competitive hockey without having to go someplace further south,' said Mike Waberski, chairman of the interim board of governors for the Northeast B.C. and Yukon District Midget AAA Hockey Program.

Waberski said the idea for the program came about because B.C. has fallen behind it's competition in the AAA division.

'Right now there are 32 AAA teams in B.C.,' he explained. 'When you look across Canada, we should have only 20. The pool is diluted.'

And Waberski said that, in turn, creates a domino effect.

'The competitiveness isn't there, so consequently, quite a few players were leaving. They would go off to play in Junior A instead of finishing midget. That was diluting the pool even more.'

The current Fort St. John midget team, the Flyers, plays in the Rural Alberta Midget Hockey League (RAMHL), but wouldn't be able to play in something like the annual Mac's Midget Hockey Tournament in Calgary. Waberski said they would get blown away by the competition. So, with the new program, the board hopes to increase the competitiveness of B.C. at the AAA Midget level.

Waberski said the long-term plan is to have 18 zone teams in the new division, but next year is what he called a transition period, and the board is expecting about 13 teams.

The District Midget AAA team will be based in Fort St. John, B.C., and operate within the Fort St. John Minor Hockey Association, so FSJMHA would assist with hockey operations.

Elite players from Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Hudson's Hope, Tumbler Ridge, Taylor, Clearview, Fort Nelson, Whitehorse and the rest of the Yukon will have the opportunity to play on the district team.

'It was designed in a geographic sense, but also in terms of numbers,' said Waberski.

Besides the northeast B.C. and Yukon team, five teams will be up and running in Vancouver, two on Vancouver Island, one in the Kootenays, two in the Okanagan, as well as several others. The hope is Kamloops and Kelowna will eventually have teams as well.

The new team, which will adopt the Flyers name, will also compete in the RAMHL, with a 36-game schedule against Alberta teams from Peace River, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Spruce Grove, Camrose, Wainwright, Bonnyville/Cold Lake and Lloydminster. The team will also compete in elite midget hockey tournaments.

At the end of the year, the NEBC &Yukon District Flyers will compete in a zone format playoff to represent the BCAHA in pursuit of the National Midget Championship.

Since the team will be based in Fort St. John, and it's proposed they practice in Taylor, B.C., Yukon residents would of course have to billet, which can be a tough choice at the age of 15 or 16.

'They have a choice,' said Waberski. 'They can come to Fort St. John now, or they can go someplace in the Kootenays and play junior A hockey and play with 20 year olds.

'Do they come here and play amongst their peers, or go someplace else where I don't think it's necessarily healthy for them.'

Waberski suggested the strongest contingent of players would come out of Fort St. John and Dawson Creek, although he admitted he's never seen Yukon midgets in competition.

'It could be conceivable that four kids out of Whitehorse could play on this team,' he said. 'Obviously those numbers would change year to year, based on the talent pool.

'We're very excited about having kids from Whitehorse come down here and play for our district hockey team.'

The NEBC & Yukon interim board of governors is now accepting applications for coaching and training staff, as well as management, available on the BCAHA web site. All the applications will be vetted through the BCAHA to ensure the quality of coaches. Waberski said the board is also looking for people who want to take on corporate sponsorships.

The election of a permanent board of governors will take place in May. Dennis Salamandyk is currently the board member for Whitehorse. Waberski said they're also hoping to have a web-site up and running by April or May, outlining more details.

Training camp for the District Flyers will be held August 27-29, so kids have an idea of what they will be doing before they start school, said Waberski. However, some Yukon students start school at the end ofAugust.

'We have an education coordinator with the midget program,' he said. 'And something we have here in Fort St. John is, with the (Physical Education) program, kids in the first term can actually elect to do a hockey program to help with their training.

'For somebody who is serious about hockey, there's an awful lot of advantages for them here.'