AGM, Puppets, Rumors, Sticks and Stones and 30 days in the slammer

The KIJHL will be holding their AGM starting on June 21st through the 23rd where they will discuss how the league runs and any new rule changes. The BCHL had their AGM a few weeks ago and made several changes to go along with the changes made by their bosses the CJHL. The BCHL changes can be seen HERE  and the CJHL new rules are here .

If you read the changes the CJHL made the big one is paying players. Good luck enforcing a rule that was always in place but is hard to prove. It is a travesty that the the CHL players (WHL-OHL-QMJHL) are considered pro and can't get a scholarship in the USA when some CJHL players are rumored (lawyers make us use the rumor word) to be getting equipment, money etc. to lure them to  teams.

The BCHL also made a deal with Bauer and will be using their sticks this season, and they have the stones to enforce it  Below is from their web site.

Third, with the BCHL signing an equipment agreement with Bauer, all players must use the Bauer Supreme Team Stick. Failure to comply will result in severe financial penalties to the club. These will escalate with repeat offences. For protective gear, teams are allowed to use up remaining new equipment from previous seasons with the understanding that future orders will be made through Bauer.

In the KIJHL there has been a few attempts to get a sponsorship deal but the problem is that some teams  make their own deals on the side and do not use the sponsor's equipment. The KIJHL Governors are never on the same page and haven't instituted fines for non compliance. They can't even make their coaches select a player of the month and they insult that sponsor each month when sometimes only half of the teams nominate a player.


So it is time for the KIJHL to bring in fines for noncompliance, money is the only thing these guys understand, and they don't do that very well either. The KIJHL has 20 teams so could easily get some sort of deal on equipment if they ever got their act together. The KIJHL and the two other Jr B leagues (PIJHL and VIJHL) act like idiots who have their own kingdoms and agendas. If they did not have their own agendas they would standardise their rules ( roster size 20 year olds etc ) and become one big league with three divisions. They would have huge numbers that would dwarf the BCHL and they would get the same deals that the BCHL gets with sponsors AND they would get the same deal the BCHL gets with BC Hockey who are their little puppets       Yeah that feels better, let us suspend players for 30 days who want to go down a level (no we don't really want to susp guys from hockey like the BCHL does) but you (BC Hockey or Hockey Canada or whoever it is that runs this asylum).can give us the new import rules

Kluck was no imported chicken

Ghostrider Josh Kluck who wore # 15 this season has been accepted into the University of Regina where he will be studying Petroleum Engineering. Kluck still had two more seasons of junior eligibility left but has elected to go to school. Josh played the last half of the season with a shoulder injury and by the end of each game could hardly lift his arm and the injury was bad enough that only surgery could fix it. But he played anyway.

They don't make  players like Kluck very often, he would fight at the drop of a hat, could play the game and was pretty good at shadowing star players too. All the best to Josh Kluck in the future.

Rule Changes ? Not here apparently.

The BCHL and all of Junior "A" have changed their import rules, now if you are a Canadian Citizen you are not considered an import. In other words an Albertan kid can move to BC or any other Province and not be considered one of the 8 or so imports at team can carry. Now US born and European players are the only imports. We hear this change does not affect Jr. "B" for whatever reason. Maybe we're not considered Canadians or something.

The new rules are here:
(a) No player having Canadian citizenship shall be classified as an Import;

(b) Any player who meets the definition of Import in his first season of Junior A hockey shall continue to be classified as an Import when registering to play Junior A hockey in any subsequent season;

(c) The maximum number of Imports that can register and play on a Junior A team at any given time shall be seven (7) in the 2013-14 season, and shall be six (6) beginning in the 2014-15 season. A review of that maximum number shall occur prior to the 2015-16 season.

Riders sign Duner

Well one of the worst kept secrets in the KIJHL became official Wednesday night  when the Fernie Ghostriders announced that they had signed Dale Hladun as their Head Coach and General Manager for the upcoming 2013-2014 season. Dale is  better known as Duner and has been in the coaching and running hockey camps business for as long as I've been writing about the Ghostriders and that is about twenty years now. Dale has had stops in several different towns including Bozeman, Quesnel, Cowichan and most recently he spent eight and a half years with the Princeton Posse where he turned a team of pretenders into contenders in very short order.

We asked Dale what his thoughts were on coming to Fernie to work with the Ghostriders Hockey

 Club ?

Dale Hladun. “First off, I am honoured that the Ghostrider organization has offered me the opportunity to be at the helm of the hockey operations of their club. I am very familiar to how well respected and run this organization is due to my connections and involvement as an opposing club in both the KIJHL and the AWHL.”

Rider News. What are your thoughts on your time in Princeton?

Dale Hladun  “I had been in Princeton for over 8 seasons and am very proud of the accomplishments we made during my tenure. In fact this past season, we just finished re-establishing new franchise records for wins (34) and points (70), finishing 4^th overall in the KIJHL for wins and 6^th overall for points.

Other accomplishments include:

* 2 Alum drafted by NHL clubs and 2 more attending NHL fall tryout camps.

* 3 former players won the Royal Bank cup. (1 with the Aurora Tigers and 2 with the Penticton Vees.)

*Posse alum in NCAA finals (Mike Garteig, Quinnipiac)

* Alberta College Athletic Conference Champions (1 alum on 2013 ACAC champs NAIT, 1 alum on 2012 ACAC champs Augustana and 5 alum on 2011 ACAC champs Mount Royal College.)

* First ever Division championship for Posse franchise.

Rider News, Do you think it will be hard to recruit players to the Fernie Ghostrider organization?

Dale Hladun  “I am confident in my abilities to successfully recruit and to coach in the KIJHL as per the success we had in Princeton. However, I look at Fernie as a whole new opportunity for success due to the quality of the organization, the support of the fans and the community, and the thirst of this place to be a champion! I believe there are only a sprinkling of organizations in Jr. B hockey that can honestly say, they have the potential and the many assets to contend for a championship every year. Fernie is definitely among that very small group! 

Rider News, when do you think you will be moving to Fernie?

Dale Hladun “I am currently living in Princeton, but plan to be living in Fernie on or before, June 30^th. I that time before I move, I must coordinate and set up our fall tryouts, a “Ghostrider” hockey school, contact the current players, and start contacting potential players for this club.

I look forward to meeting the people of the community and being involved within my new place to call home, Fernie.

Riders AGM and New President Barb Anderson

The Fernie Ghostriders held their Annual General Meeting on Tuesday night, and it was standing room only- they didn't put out any chairs.... no really, there were literally no chairs. Anyway about 15 board members and a few interested fans stood around  through the financial report and election of new officers.

The good news is the team made about $11,600  almost offsetting the $12,000 they lost the year before. Credit exiting Coach Barry Wolff for doing a great job of controlling team expenses this season.


The bad news is that the team lost 12 year President Phil Iddon who has stepped down because of work commitments. The Fernie fans should thank Phil for all he has done and for all the personal sacrifices he has made keeping hockey alive here in Fernie. Especially during the turbulent 1990's when we were a junior A team in an American league spiraling down a US money pit.

Now even more good news, all the former Board Members and new member Dan McSkimming are still on board and are going to help out.  The team is also set to enter a new era with Barb Anderson signing on as the Ghostriders new President. This is a time consuming job that only a few people can handle so the Riders are lucky someone stepped up to the plate.  Barb has been to sea before and was the President of Sparwood Minor Hockey for a few seasons so she is familiar with constitutions and dealing with people etc. This means the Riders will be around for another season of fun and controversy... especially  here at this blog....

The new coach will be announced by June first and the list of candidates has been narrowed considerably. Stay tuned. 

The Jr "B" report from Director Brian Harrison

Below is the yearly junior "B" report from Brian Harrison the JR "B" Director of the three leagues here in BC. The KIJHL, the VIJHL and the PIJGL

 The Keystone Cup can be a very expensive undertaking for the teams attending but there could be a way to help out the BC representative with a fee charged to each player card. The details would have to be worked out, like who would get the extra money if it wasn't all used by the team attending the tournament. It would have to go into a Jr "B" trust of some kind and not back to BC Hockey  The same would apply to a national tournament.

Also the three leagues have been talking about working more closely together, too bad it's just talk. If they actually joined together and formed one big league they would have a lot of clout in the Province. The old union saying applies here "United we stand divided we beg". Anyway....

The Report is below I have highlighted some of the things that should be of interest to us here in the KIJHL.

Brian Harrison, BC Hockey Junior B Divisional Director
This year we had 39 teams participating in the Junior B program in B.C. The two new franchises,
Nanaimo and Westshore (actually returned after a one-year leave), were competitive, successful and
supported by their communities. Next year will see the relocation of the Penticton Junior B team to 100 Mile House.

The three Junior B Leagues have expressed a desire to work more closely together. The first step will see the standardization of supplementary rules modeled after the BCHL.

The Junior Council has been very successful this season. Representatives of the WHL, BCHL and
Junior B have met several times to discuss issues of mutual interest as we move our game forward.
Junior B Hockey, like all levels of hockey, shares the concerns of others with respect to headshots and concussions. The safety of our players is of paramount importance. We will continue to work with Hockey Canada and BC Hockey and within our Leagues to help reduce the incidences of this infraction.

This year, the Cyclone Taylor Cup tournament (Provincial Junior B Championship) was held in
Courtenay, hosted by the Comox Valley Glacier Kings. Teams participating included the Castlegar
Rebels, the Richmond Sockeyes, the Victoria Cougars and the host, CV Glacier Kings. The games
were very competitive and extremely well played. Richmond won Gold (and went on to the Keystone),
Victoria won Silver and the Bronze went to Castlegar. The games were well attended. Thank you to
David and Marsha Webb and Iris Churchill (owners) and their committee for putting on such a
successful event and being such gracious hosts!


The following weekend, the Western Canadian Championship (The Keystone Cup) was played in St.
Malo, Manitoba. Here we defended our Western Canadian Championship and have now been
victorious in four of the last five years. The Junior B program in British Columbia is a true success story, not only for our Leagues, but is also a testimony to the successful development programs of B.C.
Hockey.

2012 – 2013 ANNUAL REPORT
There has been controversy within Junior B as to our future involvement in the Keystone Cup. The high costs of attending (must be paid by the teams) and playing in towns smaller than we are accustomed to, are often cited as issues.

I can tell you that from the perspective of the other provinces, this tournament is important and takes us  to the roots of Junior B in Western Canada. While the arena in St. Malo may not have been what some of our teams are used to, the organization, hospitality and support displayed in St. Malo was second to none found anywhere. It was truly outstanding and will be very difficult to match. The folks of St. Malo should feel extremely proud of what they accomplished. There were nearly 1000 folks jammed into their  arena for the important games. We would be extremely pleased if we could duplicate that in our larger centres. It was a tournament that will not soon be forgotten by our representatives.

There is a committee working on the feasibility of holding a national Junior B Championship, which may see us heading in a new direction. In the meantime, the Keystone affords an opportunity to measure the progress of our BC Junior B program against the best in Western Canada, in what could be considered the grass roots communities of Junior B across the west.

Next year, the Abbotsford Pilots will host the Keystone, while the Cyclone Taylor will be held in Nelson. Congratulations to the Richmond Sockeyes team and organization for not only winning the CT and the Keystone Cups, but for also winning the team sportsmanship award at the Keystone. You were tremendous ambassadors for Junior B hockey in BC.
Finally, thank you also to Barry Petrachenko and the BC Hockey staff, as well as the Executives of all three leagues, for your assistance this season.

Ghostrider Coach Update-- and a cupla other things

The Fernie Ghostriders coaching committee is still considering their options but have narrowed their list down a bit. The Ghostriders Annual General Meeting is not until Tues May 21st @ 7:00 in the arena so it is possible (likely) that a new H/C and GM may not be named until the new executive is elected.

In a normal year the board may have hired someone before the AGM but this season after 12 years as President Phil Iddon is resigning his position-click here for more info. The new President probably should have a say in the new coach. There is a board member who is interested in the President's position and who would do a good job and will be getting my vote...."But" anything can happen when you are a community owned team so no one knows for absolute sure who will end up as President.

In Kimberley the Nitros have hired local teacher Jerry Bancks- click here to see his hockey history    Bancks will also have former GM Rick Allen helping out along with Jeff Keiver who was a standout with the Nitros back in the 1990's. The Nitro press release is here scroll down to the second article. Both Bancks and Allen have worked with the Nitros in the past and had sucess.  Kimberley will be well represented with these guys on board this year.

In other  news Nelson will be hosting the Cyclone Taylor Cup in 2014. That news story is here.  Rider President Phil Iddon helped Leaf Pres Russ Stocks organise their bid and they, just like the Riders  in 2011, were successful . They will have a big recruiting advantage this season and judging by the news story the teams will be well looked after in Nelson next April.

In Castlegar Steve Junker who has spent his life in hockey- click here to read all the places he has  played  has stepped down from his H/C and GM job to take another job outside of hockey. The Rebel news story is here
Junker a former Spokane Chief stepped down after winning the KIJHL Championship and then a Bronze at the Cyclone Taylor Cup. Unless you can get to at least the BCHL there is no real money in coaching. You will starve if you have a family. The WHL and US College pay very well - in Maine their guy was makin $190 thousand US read that here  The fact is if you have a family and take a Jr "B" coaching job... you better eat a spoon full of cat food every day for a month so you will be used to it when you start your new job... sorry but it's the truth

Aaron Wilbur and his Richmond Sockeyes won the Cyclone Taylor Cup then went on to win the Keystone Cup. I don''t think they even lost a game... but Wilbur has also resigned to work   with coaches. You can read that story here

The Ghostrider organization is "Goin to the Crossroads" will it survive May 21st

There are big changes coming to the Fernie Ghostriders organization in the next few weeks. The biggest change is that Ghostrider President Phil Iddon is stepping down after 12 seasons  three leagues and several coaches. You can see those years leagues and coaches by clicking here     

Phil owns Fernie Auto Parts now and needs more time for his business. The President's job is time consuming but is easier now than in our Junior "A" days when money problems almost killed the team, especially when we played in the USA and specifically the NAHL where only lunatics travel literally 10's  of thousands of miles every season. Just ask Wenatchee why they are joining the BCHL.

Iddon led the team through the "Dark Days" along with bean counter Anita Palmer until this writer (many were mad at me at the time) and a couple of other longtime board members and a few fans convinced the team to get out while they were "Still Alive" and we joined the KIJHL.

So the team needs a new President and on Tuesday May 21st at the arena at 7:00 the community, yes we are a community owned team, will elect someone. But will someone step forward... Every year we ice a team and every season we have dissenters who easily see our mistakes and have all the answers.... now is your chance to show everyone how to run a team. The new boss will have and be part of hiring a new Coach and GM as well, and can start new.

Everyone is invited to the Riders AGM on the 14th. You can come just to watch and read the financial report or you can buy a membership and vote, or even run for office, or even President ! We need more help 

Again all the best to Barry Wolff in Coquitlam with the Jr "A" Express.. It was great renewing an old friendship with Wolf again last season and I wish him all the best in the BCHL where anyone who isas dedicated as he is belongs. Click here to see when Barry was in Fernie before we joined the KIJHL

Riders looking for a new Head Coach and GM

All the best to Barry Wolff with the Junior "A" Coquitlam Express of the BCHL. It was great having Wolffie back in Fernie for a year and renewing old friendships. I only have good things to say about Barry in his year here and I'm sure he will do well once again at the Jr "A" level.

Interested coaches can send their Resumes to  thegov@shawcable.com

Richmond wins it all and a few other things

So congratulations to the Richmond Sockeyes who killed at the Keystone Cup after they went undefeated at the Cyclone Taylor Cup a couple of weeks ago.

The Sockeyes had seven twenty year olds in the lineup, some of them were on the 2011 team that played at the Cyclone Taylor held in Fernie that year. Peninsula won that year and Richmond was last but kept several of their best players, and they had a good team that season, then went on to win it all this year.

The KIJHL stubbornly refuses to move off their "We're only going to allow four twenty year olds because we are a development league" stance. The PIJHL with I believe up to 8 20's is also a development league as well just ask  Angus Redmond  who was a 17 year old goalie playing in Port Moody of the PIJHL who in 4 months went to Jr "B" to the BCHL then on to a NCAA scholarship. Read all about his development in Salmon Arm's press release here 

There will be a new RBC champion this season as former Rider coach Fred Harbinson and his Pentiction Vees lost to Surrey on Sunday in the BCHL final click here  to read that story.  Another amazing run by a Harbinson team who without all the fanfare they generated last season (you know wrecking the league paying and not paying players etc ) still made it the the final this year.  He is the best recruiter ever, draft schmaft... A little Harbinson Bio here When he was in Fernie he recruited a league winning team as well with lots'o PIMS and points and players I never thought would ever play here.

The Surrey Eagles  will now go to the Western Canada Cup click to go to their web page, hosted by Nanimo and another onetime Rider coach Mike Vandekamp The teams are here  Brooks from the AJHL made it too- and  had unreal fan support 2688 according to their last game sheet 

Also congrats to the Bentley Generals who won the Allen Cup last weekend  Click that link to see the players on that team, you will recognise a few of them if you follow hockey, even a former Cranbrook Colt and Pass Timberwolff. .

And finally Former Ghostrider Zach Babba was also playing in the Keystone Cup as an overage, in Alberta that means 21 year old.. Check out his last game PIMS here he went out with a bang 

Fernie Ghostriders AGM is on Tues May 21st at the Arena

The public is welcome, actually we are begging the public to attend... This could be a " game changing " meeting for anyone who is interested.
You don't even need to be a member, but if you want to vote you must be a member and you can get a membership at Fernie Auto Parts.