I’ve never traveled international before, so I’m very excited for this opportunity,” said the Amherst native.
Hunter latest adventure is a trip to Latvia where he will be the video coach for a three-day hockey camp featuring 34 players; four goaltenders, 12 defencemen and 18 forwards.
The camp is hosted by the Canadian International Ice Hockey Development Agency, a non-profit hockey camp developed by Justin Harrison, a resident of Athol.
Harrison is also the director of scouting with the Summerside Western Capitals and a scout for a Scottish team, the Edinburgh Captials.
“Jordan is a great video guy and great with analytics and we didn’t have anyone on our staff that was specialized in all that,” said Harrison. “A high-level camp like this could benefit from analytics. Jordan will bring a big positive to our camp.”
The camp runs June 16-18 in Tukums, Latvia.
“The camp is for players from the three Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia,” said Hunter. “Latvia is in the middle, so it’s a good central spot.”
Hunter enters his third year at the University of New Brunswick in September where he is studying Kinesiology Sport Management. He has been the video coach and associate director of analytics and statistics for the UNB Varsity Reds men’s hockey team for the past two years. In that time they’ve won back-to-back national championships.
“It’s the first back-to-back championship for UNB, and we’ll be the first UNB team to go three-and-three next year,” said Hunter.
Before joining the Varsity Reds, Hunter worked in several capacities with the Amherst Ramblers, including being on the board of directors at the age of 16, nominating Amherst for Kraft Hockeyville, which provided $25,000 towards a new centre ice score clock, and, under current Ramblers general manager Jeff Leblanc, worked in analytics, player recruitment, and scouting.
The Latvian camp features a total of eight coaches.
“There’s going to be four normal coaches, plus a strength coach, a goalie coach, Jordan doing analytics, and, hopefully, a player from the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League),” said Harrison.
Hunter explains what he will be looking for at the camp.
“Every single thing a player does out there will be tracked, recorded and sorted so the coaching staff, after every ice session, can go through it,” said Hunter. “If they want to see something in particular that the player can improve on everything will be in great detail. It will right there on the fly.”
The entire camp will cost close to $17,000.
“Any money we don’t get through sponsorships the players will have to be charged but we’ll charge what it takes to recover our funds,” said Harrison. “At the end of day the goal is to give the camp for free, or as free as possible.”
Two local sponsors are Harrison’s Home Hardware and Mansour’s Menswear
Also, Hunter is on the Go Fund Me website where he hopes to raise $3,000 for the trip by June 1.
“That’s to cover my flight and the little things when I’m there, but most everything will be covered when I’m there,” said Hunter.
As of Tuesday, Hunter had been funded to the tune of $1,570. Donations have been between $20 and $300.
To donate to Hunter’s Go Fund Me page, go to www.gofundme.com/development-camp-jordan-hunter
