Recent Cold Temperatures Do Not Affect Some Bears

If you think the past few days Central Pennsylvania have been cold, you clearly have never visited Patrick Wellar’s hometown. “I’m from Saskatchewan and up there’s it’s -50° Celsius. As cold as it is today, back home you have to put your car in, otherwise it won’t start,” said the Saskatoon native. For comparison, Hershey was -20° Celsius Tuesday. “Today’s cold, I’ll give it that. It’s amazing what you get used to growing up as a kid. There were no school days when it was that cold. Saskatchewan is a big Province, but it’s a lot of farm land. The wind chill gets you because there’s nothing to block the wind.”

Captain Dane Byers is from Nipawin, only 30 minutes from Wellar’s birth town, Carrot River. “It doesn’t compare to this weather. I remember when I was a young kid it was so cold your jacket was kind of crunchy and your eyelids were sticking together,” Byers remarked after practice Tuesday. “We have a few Saskatchewan guys and they know what cold really is. It’s kind of funny when guys come to the rink and they’re complaining about the cold, but really it’s not that bad.”

Head coach Mike Haviland is originally from New Jersey, but lived in Canada for part of his life. “I was talking to somebody this morning about it. I remember snow being 13-14 feet high, walking to school in almost a maze of snow, and having it be minus something for a good month.” Despite that time in the cold weather, Havi is not a fan of freezing temperatures. “I honestly don’t like the cold that much,” he said with a smile. “I do live in Chicago and it’s cold there, but I’m not really used to it.”

After this past weekend with two big wins, the team was all smiles during practice Tuesday. Check out some photos from the day down below.

All photos by Kyle Mace. Click to enlarge:

Dane Byers takes a fall

Nate Schmidt laughs at his captain after his little trip-up