Although Hockey BC still has to give its blessing, the 100 Mile House Wranglers Junior B Hockey Club will be hitting the ice at arena for the 2013/14 season.
Club president Tom Bachynski was ecstatic when he got the news the Wranglers’ purchase of the Penticton Lakers had been accepted by the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) on Dec. 6.
The club has a lot of work ahead to prepare to have the Wranglers game ready for the first drop of the puck, including carding players who will help the franchise “make a huge impact” on the league right off the bat.
Meanwhile, team organizers have a lot of fundraising to do because the Wranglers are starting from scratch and will have to purchase everything, and Bachynski says the team will be relying heavily on community support financially and with a sold-out fan base. There will be more on that aspect of the organization in the new year.
However, the Wranglers will also be bringing a lot to the table for 100 Mile House and surrounding communities.
Bachynski expects the arena at South Cariboo Rec. Centre will be rocking for every exhibition, regular season and playoff game next year.
He suspects the Wranglers will be in the KIJHL’s Shuswap division and thinks the Kamloops Storm and the Chase Heat, which has former 100 Mile Midgets’ — Reece Forman — playing for them this year, will be natural rivals for the club.
“We want to try to have some local content with this club. What we don’t want to do is have 23 players from out of town.”
Bachynski says that means they want to help develop minor hockey locally.
“We want to be a big partner with minor hockey, and to be a partner, we have to help develop their kids and local players. Local being 100 Mile, Williams Lake and Quesnel.
“We want to have as much local content as possible, and at the same time, have a big impact on the league.”
The club president notes that working with the local minor hockey organization gives the players from the youngest to the oldest a purpose during their hockey careers.
“I grew up in a minor hockey system that had Junior B at the end and it was a ‘right of passage’. You played your hardest and your best, so you could get a shot at playing on the Junior B team.
“I’m hoping that’s what we’re going to bring to minor hockey, and I have no doubt we will. It will take a while for the culture to build, but it will build and it will be a wonderful partnership.”
Bachynski says the club has already started talking to the Canim Lake Band about the possibility of billet families because the Wranglers will be encouraging First Nations players to try out for the squad.
“We are hoping we’re going to get some buy-in from the First Nations community,” he says, adding Wranglers director Rick Takagi has been talking to the band and will renew conversations in the new year.
With the arena seating 700 fans, Bachynski says he doesn’t think it’s going to be a problem filling the stands right away.
“It’s going to be new and exciting, but it’s 20 games in and 20 sessions down the road that we have keep filling that arena.
“We’re going to be a very strong organization in the KIJHL that’s going to fill the arena, fill the fans’ need for good, solid hard-playing hockey, and create that social fabric that every town in Canada seems to need to have a hockey team to aspire to.”
