WolfPack add former WHL forward Halliday for 2010/11 season

For the second year in a row, when the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack hockey team hits the ice, they will do it with a player having experience in the Western Hockey League.

Tyler Halliday, a four year veteran of the WHL has agreed to join the WolfPack hockey program starting in 2010-11. Halliday played with three teams during his Western Hockey League Career beginning with the Red Deer Rebels before moving to the Prince George Cougars, the Kelowna Rockets and then finishing up the Cougars this past season (2009-10). He had nine goals and 12 assists with 163 penalty minutes in 66 games with the Rockets and Cougars last season.

“I am very excited to join TRU and the WolfPack,” says Halliday, “The school has grown in the past 5 years into one of the best and I am very excited to be a part of it. hockey wise I am anxious to start the season with the team and help them win the BCIHL title.”

Halliday, a grad of South Kamloops Secondary is very familiar with the WolfPack. He played minor hockey with four members of TRU’s 2009-10 squad (Cody Lockwood, David Gore, Mick Ludwig, and Jose Reyes). They were teammates in Midget hockey with the North Kamloops Lions. He had a number of offers to join CIS Programs.

“At first I was just playing out my options and seeing what was available,” he stated. “ I had a few universities call and to see if I was interested and I just kept everything open until I was ready to make my decision. The schools that contacted me were U of Alberta, U of Lethbridge, UBC, Lakehead, and U of Waterloo. But I decided that TRU would be the best fit for me.”

That and he’d be closer to his parents.

“I chose TRU because it will be nice to play at home. My parents, Chris and Robin, also agreed to allow me to come back home and live there as well. I also choose TRU because Kamloops is such a hot spot for hockey and other sports and I have heard great things about the school and their sports programs. Living in Kamloops most of my life I know that TRU has an exceptional campus and sporting facilities which really helped with my decision.”

WolfPack coach Lorne Cumming couldn’t be happier with Halliday’s decision to play with the squad. "Having Tyler Halliday join our WolfPack hockey club is a special day for our organization. Tyler is a player that competes in every game he plays and he has shown he can be a leader at a very high level. We are looking forward to Halli bringing that presence into our culture as we continue to build WolfPack hockey into one of the most attractive university programs available to competitive student players.

"We feel Tyler will be a guy that sets the tone physically in tough games and can also score a critical goal when we really need one. Clearly, he won the respect of his team-mates with his example on and off the ice while playing in Kelowna, and Prince George in the Western League and I know that will continue within our WolfPack hockey culture."

Halliday needs to take some University Prep courses in Math and English for the first semester with an eye to entering the Bachelor of Business Administration degree program hoping to be an accountant.