By Ryan Pilon

Prince Albert Mintos have come a long way

Mar 26, 2011 | 11:29 AM

The Prince Albert Mintos’ provincial championship win last week was their third in the last six years.

However, these are the only Saskatchewan Midget AAA titles on the team’s resume, despite the team being established in 1995.

President of the team, Zenon Markowsky, said the organization really started turning around about 10 years ago.

“We started to focus on getting a board of directors in place, and then hiring a coaching staff, and then trying to maintain continuity in the coaching staff, and we certainly have done that in Tim Leonard,” Markowsky said.

Tim Leonard joined the Mintos’ coaching staff nine years ago. He spent the first three years as the assistant coach, before assuming the head coaching position.

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“When Tim was first on board, we knew that he was a disciplinarian. A person who really demanded hard work and discipline,” said Markowsky.

“The way he practices, and how hard those practices are, prepares our players for what’s to come down the line.”

Markowsky also attributes the team’s recent success to becoming more aggressive when it comes to recruiting.

“We would sit around and wait for players released from other teams,” said Markowsky, referring to 10 years ago.

“We have scouts now who scour the province, talk to parents. Players want to come to Prince Albert now and play, because they know now that not only will they have a good chance of winning, but they are going to develop.”

“We do a good job of recruiting,” said Leonard.

“Once we get the kids here, we get them molded, and playing the way we want and adapted to our systems. We’ve had success with it.”

As for the future of this organization, Leonard sees more success coming the team’s way.

“The future looks good. There are lots of good, young kids coming up in PA, and as long as that keeps going, the Mintos will be fine,” said Leonard.

For now, the Mintos will focus on the rest of this season. They will travel to Moose Jaw on Thursday for the Western Regionals. The winner of the regionals moves on to the Telus Cup in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

rpilon@panow.com