North Stars’ Tanner an integral part of the team

Because this is junior hockey and not the National Hockey League, the 26-year-old’s job doesn’t stop there.

He’s also an equipment manager and, in a way, a bit of a strength and conditioning coach too.

“I do laundry, skate sharpening, equipment maintenance, all that sort of stuff, and team workouts, I run those,” Tanner said. “It never really feels like work. You come here, you put in the work that needs to get done but it’s always an enjoyable atmosphere, especially on a winning team and… it never feels like a 9-5 drag.”

“He puts a lot of time and preparation into our team day in and day out,” said North Stars associate coach Braeden Johnson, who has worked with Tanner for two years. “Obviously he does a lot of work behind the scenes. I don’t think he gets enough credit…he’s an extremely important part of the puzzle.”

Tanner was also nearly the trainer for the Flin Flon Bombers.

Two summers ago, he applied for jobs with the Battlefords North Stars, the Bombers, and the Weyburn Red Wings.

Flin Flon had the first offer. They had a contract ready to go, just waiting to be signed.

“Then I realized I didn’t really want to go to Flin Flon,” Tanner said. “So then [Battlefords] offered me a contract and I guess I kind of left Flin Flon a bit in the wind.

“Proximity to other bigger towns, Saskatoon and even Lloydminster, that was a big drawing factor for me.”

And so, before the start of the 2015-16 season, Tanner packed up his bags and moved from Vancouver, where he was born and raised, to North Battleford.

Although the Battlefords may have been favourable to smaller Flin Flon, going from a city of over one million to a city of 15,000 was still quite the adjustment.

The biggest adjustments were finding ways to meet new people, not always easy in a small town, and, as a lover of fitness and the outdoors, the difference in food selection.

“I’m used to Vancouver where you can walk down a block and there are 10 sushi restaurants there, while you walk here and there is Sobeys or Wal-Mart or Boston Pizza,” Tanner joked.

While growing up on the west coast, Tanner was always doing some kind of activity.

He played multiple sports growing up, including being a goalie in ice hockey, and his family, which includes a sister three years his elder, enjoyed camping and hiking.

“We were a pretty big outdoors family. Biking, skiing in the winters, climbing mountains and whatnot, camping all the time in the summer, road trips, all that,” he said. “We’ve done kayak trips [and] canoe trips, where you’re pretty much just backpacking it in. We’ve got all the gear to survive in the outdoors.”

Tanner stayed out West after high school while attending Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., where he studied kinesiology.

Soon after, he quickly became the trainer for the Surrey Eagles of the British Columbia Hockey League, also a junior A club.

Unfortunately, he didn’t enjoy it as much as he thought he would.

“It’s privately owned so it was not quite as well run as here. A few things were a little dicey,” Tanner said. “Also we had a great season of 9-45. It didn’t really feel like people were there for the right reasons in terms of the players, for the most part. There were a few exceptions but most of them, their heads weren’t in it. They just liked the lifestyle of a hockey player but they weren’t really committed to the team.”

Although the North Stars are in the middle of a playoff run, Tanner has made the decision not to return to the team.

He intended on doing an accelerated program in athletic therapy at Mount Royal University, except there was a major hiccup that has changed his plans.

“I missed the deadline by a day because I thought it was a month later,” Tanner said. “All of the other applications for the school were March 1 so I thought it was March 1 but then there was a little heading below [for] that one program that I was applying to that said February 1.

“That fell through so I think next year I’ll get a few more certifications and probably work in the strength and conditioning world. Going to try that out for a year and see how I like that.”

His long-term goal would be to work with a professional sports team, and at this point, whether that’s on the medical side or the strength and conditioning side remains to be seen.

That’s why he feels it’s the right time to move back to Vancouver.

“It was good to see how a proper organization can be run, just with support and how junior hockey players take the atmosphere,” he said. “It’s time for me to try something new and go back home to Vancouver and see where it goes from there.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

North Stars’ Tanner an integral part of the team

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