By Gillian Saunders - Silvertips staff writer 

With the Jr. Silvertips out to a run of 12-4-1 to begin the season, it's not just one player that can seize the eye of the head coach. Sometimes, a trio can take the honors. Head coach Turner Stevenson explains more on Dawson Butt, Jakob Stevenson, and Hunter Campbell - with both Butt (Everett) and Campbell (Calgary) already pinned with futures as WHL draft picks. 

Gillian Saunders: What is it about their performance the last few games that made you nominate them?

Turner Stevenson: "All 3 of them got chosen to play in the NAPHL All-Star Game, and you know, that's a great accomplishment for not only them, but our program, as far as getting our names on the boards of the players here, and that they participated in that league. It's very good for us in the weeks forward showing that we've made a great turn around compared to what we've done last year, so it's a great reward for those three individuals but also a really good recognition for the team."

GS: What makes them stand out amongst the other players on the team?

TS: "Well, I don't know about standing out, but we're getting a lot more consistency from each three lines. I think the benefit that they've had is that, you know, Hunter did play in O-1 last year, and they all had played together in the year's past when i had them in bantam 2 years ago, so all three of them are familiar with each other's game and they're starting to gel again, now that they've come back. It's not really a matter of standing out more than the other players; they just seem to click a little better, but the other lines are doing the same, I'm just trying to give them the recognition because of the All-Star Game, more so than a reflection of them playing better than the other players on the team, because right now we're all playing really good hockey. It's been great the last showcase we had, and it was the best we've played all year so it's been really exciting to be coaching that."

GS: How are all three of them good support systems for the rest of the team?

TS: "Well I think it's been easy for two of them. So it's a motivating tool, if that's the right word, for different players to look up to. They're playing on a team with players of that caliber, but it could easily be them also, whether they're going to play in that league, or go to college, or even Jr. A. They'res getting to play and practice, more importantly, with players that calibrate, and to me, that's the most important part of developing, it's having good players to push each other every day in practice so everybody can get better, whether it's the person who only plays a few minutes a game, or the person who plays a ton of minutes a game. It's the better the player, the better buy-in we have, and the better practices we get to have, so that helps everybody's development."

GS: What do you expect to see from them in future games?

TS: "It's more of the same, and even more. They're relied on heavily, and we're trying to score more goals. We're getting a lot of chances and we're playing really good defensive hockey, but we'll probably have to start bearing down on our opportunities in important situations and games, and we do rely heavily on them, but we also rely on the other two lines just as much, so it's been our focus here in the last week or so to try and capitalize on our opportunities to score more goals because we are playing very well away from the puck, but we are giving up and not bearing down on our chances to score as many goals as we can. Not only that, but all the older kids are the same, and like all the times we've talked before, I don't want the kids to take this as the end goal; they have to get better all the time and improve, especially the second half of the year when the competition gets better, and as the team starts getting their routine down better and they're getting used to their players so that we continue to climb and ascend to be a better team overall.