Runners Captain Forward Garrett Wilderman and Defenseman Tadeas Vicha have been summoned to Corpus Christi of the NAHL to skate in this weeks practices with the IceRays.
Wilderman, one of the teams top producers could be very interesting to NAHL teams over the next few months as he is a 2001 birth-year player that has great skills and size to compete at the next level. The 6′ 175 power forward plays with an edge and is rumored to have a couple NCAA D-3 programs keeping an early eye on him this season.
Vicha, is a solid blueliner for the Runners the 2000 birth-year player stands at 6’4″ and weights 220. He was sent to the team from Odessa in the NAHL earlier this season and is working on his speed and physical play which will be needed to crack into an NAHL line-up.
Both Vicha and Wilderman are coming of big weekends in Louisiana and when they were told of the opportunity to skate with Corpus jumped at the chance. “It was going to be tough for sure as the guy’s needed to come back on the bus last night then hit the road to corpus as soon as they got back in order to make the 10 am start for Al Rooney and his squad.” stated Runners coach Ryan Scheide.
The two players are the first to be invited up to Corpus since the two teams formed a partnership earlier this season and we are sure that there will be more opportunities for both programs in the upcoming weeks. “Al messaged me Sunday and asked if I could send up a couple guys for practice this week and I offered both Wilderman and Vicha and the response was, that was exactly who we wanted to come up.” stated head coach Mike Beavis
The RoadRunners are proving that the NAHL / NA3HL relationship is beginning to take shape for sure this season as other programs are now taking advantage of the opportunities that both leagues can offer each other. “It’s a two way street for sure and the NA3HL needs to understand that. It has to work both ways in support on and off the ice. We have a potential great opportunity to grow a relationship here and I would love to be a big part of it’s success.” added Beavis
Wilderman and Vicha will be with the team this week and should return back to the Runners in time to prepare for their games against Atlanta in two weeks.