U18 Wheat Kings promote Mealy to head coach

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This article was published 03/08/2023 (1040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Travis Mealy rose through the ranks from major junior to U Sports and played in the Central Hockey League.

He played under the likes of NHL coaches Clement Jodoin and Andre Tourigny in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Mealy reflected on that this week after being named head coach of the under-18 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings late Tuesday evening.

Of all the men who helped shape him as a player and person, who does he want to emulate?

“Ken Schneider,” Mealy said, of the Brandonite who coached him when he was 10.

“Even though all those coaches might have been a little bit more technically sound, the thing I took most from Schneids is he wouldn’t come in and yell at you and scream at you to make you play better. When you came in and you didn’t play hard for him, you felt like you let him down.

“I’m not Kenny Schneider but I want that. I want to be able to tell the boys, ‘If you need anything, come talk to me.’ I don’t want to just say it, I want them to feel that relationship.

“The screaming, the hard-ass coaches, they’re kind of done away with. You play harder for a guy you care about and you know that he actually cares about you.”

Mealy played for the U18 Wheat Kings from 2000 to 2002 before joining the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Dauphin Kings towards the end of his 16-year-old season.

He moved out to the Q to man the blue-line for the since-relocated Lewiston Maineiacs and was traded to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies during his 18-year-old season. He ended his overage year in 2005-06 with the Prince Edward Island Rocket, compiling 47 points and 309 penalty minutes in 195 major junior games.

Mealy skated for the University of Prince Edward Island for two seasons, then played three at the University of Manitoba before ending the 2011-12 season with the CHL’s Tulsa Oilers.

He played senior hockey in Carberry and Boissevain and joined the U18 Wheat Kings’ staff as an assistant in 2018.

The team moved on from coach Chris Johnston during that season and won the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League crown with Schneider at the helm.

The following season was cut short and the next was barely able to start due to COVID-19, then Brandon reached the league final and semifinals the following two years, bowing out in deciding fifth games.

Over that time, the team has meant progressively more to Mealy.

“I thought five years ago that I would just help out when I could,” Mealy said.

“I got bit by the bug and the program became engrained in me. I love bringing my girls and my wife to the rink with me.

“I love getting to see 15-year-old boys step into the program and watching them leave at 17 or 18 years old as young men, and watching how they’ve changed as a hockey player and transitioned into a grown-up.”

The job became available when head coach Curtis Brolund moved on to an assistant coach role under Virden Oil Capitals head coach and general manager Tyson Ramsey, who led the U18 Brandon club before Mealy joined.

Wheat Kings president Bruce Moar said the board had “five good hockey people” and interviewed three before making the decision, which wasn’t easy.

“We’re not only here to develop players but to develop coaches too,” Moar said. “We just thought Travis, with the experience with the program … is ready for the next step.

“Just his attitude. He’s determined to win and he wants to work with the kids, have an open-door policy with them and just get them prepared for the next level.”

Mealy feels the returning group is strong. Jaxon Jacobson led offensively as an underage winger, racking up 24 goals and 36 assists. Regina Pats prospect Cole Temple had 25 and 33 while Brandon finished third in the league with 211 goals, 15 behind the Winnipeg Bruins.

Brandon also had a league-best 109 goals against and went 34-7-3 to claim the top seed before the second-round upset by the Wild.

Mealy feels the key to those moments will be simplifying the game and learning to minimize mistakes.

“You want to win every game but if you’re not winning the right way, just based on skill, then the boys aren’t learning anything and that’s kind of what happened to us last year,” Mealy said.

“We were making the same mistakes throughout the year but we were winning because we were so much more skilled than the other team. When it came down to one-goal games, two-goal games in playoffs, it got hard on the guys and they didn’t know how to lose. They didn’t know how to respond to adversity.”

“Everybody’s expected to work hard,” Mealy added. “It doesn’t matter if you had 70 points last year, the standard goes across the board.”

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