Fresh new look for Minor Hockey

This is certainly a year for new looks in Hope Minor Hockey. Facilities maintenance coordinator, Todd Hadway, and his staff have created a beautiful new Wildcats logo at center ice; the arena has a new roof and interior paint job; there’s a new association website — and the executive has many new faces at the table.

“Most of the executive was stepping down at the end of last season, so I was sort of hooked into the job,” said the new president, Travis Walker, on Monday. “We’re brand new and starting from scratch.

“I’ve been involved in hockey since I was four years old, growing up in the Abbotsford system, right through Midget Rep. I’ve found the president’s position interesting, though. It takes management skills, which I’ve learned in my job as maitre d’ at the Copper Room at the Harrison Hotel.”

Walker assisted with coaching on his son’s teams in the past two years but has moved up to head coach of an Atom team this year.

“We have two very small Atom teams, of 11 and 13,” said Walker, “but our overall numbers are up by about 12. We now have about 140 players, top to bottom, after being in a decline for a few years. It’s a bit of a mix where the growth is coming from — but It’s all in Pee Wee and below.

“We’re all recreational hockey — no rep — and we have two teams in Midget, two in Bantam, two Pee Wees, two Atoms, one Hockey 4, one Hockey 3 and the Hockey 1 and 2 for the age 5 and 6 year-olds have been combined into two teams.”

Walker has taken over the helm from past-president, Ric Hampton, who is now helping coach the Hockey 4 team. Both men hail from Harrison Hot Springs — and the out-of-town contribution is a key factor in the vitality of the local hockey association. By design, most of Walker’s Atom team come from the Agassiz-Harrison end, but he figures about 40 per cent of the 140 players come from out of Hope.

The Atom and older divisions have been playing a series of 6 exhibition games against teams from Mission, Abbotsford and Chilliwack to get the season going. It’s called a “balancing schedule”, explained the president.

“We want to avoid having blow-outs like 20-0, so depending on how teams do in the balancing schedule, they’ll be placed in groups that match their strength. I’m going to a presidents’ meeting tonight, where we’ll be discussing the groupings that will be in place for the regular season.”

The Hope association hosted a ref clinic in September and they now have a stable of just over 20 officials to draw from, with Daryl Inancsi acting as referee-in-chief.

It’s still under construction but the club’s new website at hopeminorhockey.com has the bones for building up a fun and informative source for local hockey news.

“Our second vice president, Jesse James, took the lead on finding a website provider,” said Walker. “We did a lot of research through the late spring and early summer. The site is done by esportsdeskpro.com and it’s a template like a lot of associations are using. There’s a cost but it’s definitely cheaper than going through an independent web designer.

“Each team has a manager and they have access codes so they can input scores and team news.”

Key info, such as executive members, ice schedules, tournament schedules and maps to the arena are on the site now. Team news, game schedules, scores, videos and photos will be added as the season unfolds.

Three of six tournaments are fully booked, with the Atoms and Pee Wees hosting 8-team tourneys on the November 6-8 and December 4-6 weekends, respectively.

The new electronic sign outside the Rec Center says that Hope’s is “The Best Ice in B.C.” — and you won’t get any disagreement from Walker.

“It’s great ice,” said the president. “Everyone that talks to me says they love the ice... but they also say how bad our dressing rooms are. That’s the other end of it!”

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