There was a distinct South Delta flavour to the most dominant team in the history of the Semiahmoo Minor Hockey Association.
The Ravens captured their first-ever B.C. Hockey Provincial Championship after a 6-2 win over the Burnaby Winter Club last week in the Pee Wee Tier One title game played in front of a capacity crowd at Centennial Arena in White Rock.
The provincial gold comes on top of earlier winning Pacific Coast Amateur regular season and playoff titles.
The Ravens also presented B.C. at the prestigious Quebec International Pee Wee Tournament and won their division at the Pat Quinn Classic in Burnaby.
The team was guided by Ladner natives Shane Kuss and Matt Erhart who both enjoyed plenty of success locally on and off the ice.
Kuss was part of a dominant South Delta Minor team himself that captured the provincial Bantam Tier One Championship. He went on to become the all-time leading scorer in the B.C. Hockey League with the Surrey Eagles and played professionally in Europe before launching his coaching career.
He led the Delta Ice Hawks to its best-season ever — winning the PJHL and Cyclone Taylor Cup Championships before finishing third at the Keystone Cup Western Canadian Championship. He moved on to coach in the BCHL with the Eagles.
More recently, he has launched his own hockey program — SK Development — and was hired by Semiahmoo Minor, along with Erhart, as Player Development Leads.
Erhart also enjoyed a decorated playing career that took him to the BCHL and ultimately an NCAA scholarship to Quinnipiac University. He returned home to jump into the coaching ranks, guiding the last South Delta Minor team to a berth in the Bantam A1 Provincials.
In the pre-academy era, his roster was loaded with players who went on to play junior and beyond, including Montreal Canadiens star Brendan Gallagher.
Erhart also was head coach and GM of his former BCHL team and worked as an assistant with the Vancouver Giants for a number of years.
