Granite Bay's Turner crowned Canadian National Ice Hockey Champion

Weston Turner, 19, is a former Granite Bay resident who got into the sport of ice hockey at the age of four. Fifteen years later, Turner is a national champion with the Brooks Bandits in Canada. Turner began commuting to New Hampshire during his freshman year in high school to follow his dream and play ice hockey at a prep school and eventually at a D1 college. In 2021, he got recruited to the British Columbia Hockey League and was traded last December to play defense on an Alberta Junior A Hockey League team, the Brooks Bandits in Brooks, Alberta, Canada. On May 29, the Brooks Bandits won the Centennial Cup Championship, which is an annual ice hockey tournament organized by Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It determines the national champion of Junior A ice hockey. Despite being a defenceman, Turner scored four goals and added 13 assists for the Bandits. "All year with the Bandits, we knew we had a job to do to win the national championship," Turner said. "Being able to accomplish that was exhilarating. It's always exciting to win and being able to do it on the national stage for a championship makes it that much better." Turner enrolled in his first ice hockey class at Skatetown Ice Arena in Roseville in April 2007. After playing in Skatetown's youth house hockey league, Turner went on to play travel hockey with his AAA or "Tier 1 Hockey" team, the San Jose Jr. Sharks 13U. Turner and his teammates won the California State Championship in 2017 before he headed off to prep school. Turner scored five goals and added an assist for the Sharks during the championship season. He would go on to play for Groton School for two years, scoring six goals and adding 16 assists in the 2019-20 season. "Looking back at my hockey career so far, I would have to say what I've most enjoyed is all the people that I've met: my teammates, coaches, team staff, and hockey families," Turner said. "I've met so many great people over the years that I will be friends with for life. It has truly been a special community." Turner will join the Brooks Bandits for another season before he leaves in 2023 for Worcester, Massachusetts to play National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I hockey for the College of the Holy Cross. Along with Turner, his father, Vern Turner, also started playing hockey in 2007 and currently rosters on a team in the "age 50-plus" division as well as on a Bronze A team at Skatetown Ice Arena in Roseville. He helps run the Monday night Silver B team, the Suicide Kings, and the Saturday morning 50-plus team, Happy Hour.