University of Windsor Lancers take meaningful trip to B.C.

The University of Windsor Lancers are far from home ice – devoting development camp time to humanitarian work in flood-stricken First Nations in B.C. (Source: WindsorMHKY/Twitter)

The Windsor Lancers men’s hockey team is taking the pre-season out of province this year, engaging in humanitarian work in B.C.

The team, which would be in the throws of development camp any other year, is in the Nicola Valley helping out First Nations communities hit hard by fires and flooding last year.

The team arrived on the west coast on Friday, splitting up to get different jobs done.

Centreman Mason Kohn spent Tuesday constructing a fence with a few of the guys, but says they’ve taken on all kinds of jobs.

“There are some horses running wild on a gentleman’s property, so we built a big corral and fixed up the place where they train the horses as well,” he says.

A group of University of Windsor Lancers hockey players constructed a horse corral during a recent trip to B.C. (Source: WindsorMHKY/Twitter)Kohn describes it as “the trip of a lifetime.”

He says the team’s been working hard but hasn’t spent the whole time on construction sites.

On Sunday, the Lancers players and staff took a trip to the site of a former residential school in Kamloops — the same place where 215 unmarked graves were discovered in the spring of 2021.

“It was gut-wrenching,” says Kohn. “We’re very lucky and fortunate to learn and to get to teach and educate people when we get back to Windsor.”

The University of Windsor Lancers hockey team spent August 28, 2022 at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. Player Mason Kohn says they were lucky to learn the history. (Source: WindsorMHKY/Twitter)He says the team has also been getting in some ice time while there, working on the various job sites throughout the day and hitting the ice in the evening.

Past years have seen the team travel to New Orleans and other areas in need of help for similar projects.

Head coach Kevin Hamlin says it’s what the Lancers are all about.

“Our mantra is: developing champions on the way to winning championships,” Hamlin says.

He adds, “They’re going to remember this for a lifetime. They’ll forget a goal or a big save or whatever, but they’re never going to forget seeing the look in people’s eyes and hearing the stories they’ve heard this week.”

The team will play an exhibition game against the University of British Columbia’s team on Saturday before heading home.