“Common sense says, don’t do this. But you know, the heart inside of you toward hockey and the community says, let’s try and scrape through this for one year.”
It may have been the toughest decision Randy Bedard has ever had to make.
And strangely enough, he was deciding whether or not his Osoyoos Coyotes would participate in the 2020-21 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League season.
The league’s board of governors and 20 team officials held a conference call last Wednesday to make plans for the upcoming season – the COVID-19 pandemic forcing hockey league’s across Canada to make some hard decisions.
“We decided to play,” confirmed Bedard. “The majority of the teams in the KIJHL made that decision that they wanted to play this season. We’re going that direction. It’s a difficult decision because, obviously, you’ve got so many expenses with running a program like this, and the revenue sources will definitely be depleted.
“So we’re just going to try and get through an abbreviated season the best we can.”
Three teams – Beaver Valley, 100 Mile House and Spokane – made the tough decision not to play, with the Braves not having much of a choice given the Canada-US border remains closed.
“It was a very difficult decision. I think just looking at teams around the league, and the teams that are going to participate, and figuring, maybe it’s something that you should do as well. We did have the option not to play.
“But at the end of the day, everything that Carter Rigby our head coach has been doing, and John DePourcq has been helping us out – all their hard work and dedication to recruiting and building a strong club had to be taken into account.”
With the decision to proceed carved in stone, Bedard, and the other 16 KIJHL teams, now must figure out how to accomplish that, and not go broke in the process.
“Well, there are financial challenges – I think first and foremost, as a business, just trying to make ends meet and the goal of breaking even if you possibly can. That would be the first challenge,” said Bedard, who is entering his 11th season as Coyotes owner. “Especially with decreased sponsorship and no fans in attendance, and there is a concern with finding enough billet homes too for the players to be housed for the season.”
The season will begin Nov. 13, with each team playing a 30-game regular season.”
The Coyotes, who won the KIJJHL title in Bedard’s first season as owner, have struggled the past two seasons.
Bedard sees light at the end of the tunnel with the on-ice product, and that has him excited to play.
“That’s the thing about not wanting to call the season. Carter and John are very excited about the players they have signed and committed to the Coyotes for this coming season,” he said. “We’re coming off a couple of tough seasons and we want to be a more competitive club like we had been in the first eight seasons. Both gentlemen have worked really hard and they’re excited about the season.
“It’s going to be very different, but hopefully we’ll have some hockey then.”
Meantime, the KIJHL held a dispersal draft Friday in order for the league's 17 active teams to select players from the 100 Mile House Wranglers, Beaver Valley Nitehawks and Spokane Braves.
Osoyoos had the first overall pick and chose Brock Wallace from Beaver Valley. The Coyotes also chose Zachary Park and Hunter Young from the Nitehawks.
As for other Okanagan and Similkameen-bases teams, Summerland chose Jackson Kowblick and Benjamin Keon from 100 Mile House, and Brennan Wilson from Beaver Valley; North Okanagan Knights picked Quinn Mulder, Logan-Gooder Zimmer and Jarrett Blaase from 100 Mile House; Kelowna chose Jacob Gullmes from 100 Mile House, Ethan Jang from Beaver Valley and Austin Madge from Spokane; and the Princeton Posse picked up Brendan Murrey from Beaver Valley, plus Nicolas Flinton and Ryan McMann from 100 Mile and Marcello de Antunano from Spokane.
