AnnuAl EvEnT A SuCCESS foR loCAl CHARiTiES A19 DECEMBER 12, 2012
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100 Mile House junior hockey club society shoots ... and scores By Ken Alexander
the Celebration of Lights event. It was a far different emo100 Mile House Wranglers tion for Bachynski than the Junior B Hockey Club presi- one he had in early May when dent Tom Bachynski got an he learned the Revelstoke early Christmas present on Grizzlies would be staying Dec. 6. in that community and not That’s when he heard that coming to 100 Mile House. 100 Mile will have a Junior B Meanwhile, the club presihockey team in the Kootenay dent notes they still have one International Junior Hockey more hurdle to get over before League in 2013. it’s official that the Lakers Noting he was letting franchise is being handed people know about the over to the Wranglers. bidding process for the The club now has to get annual Celebration of Lights approval from Hockey BC, fundraiser at Central GM he explains. that night, Bachynski says Hockey BC has rarely, if he was in the middle of his ever, denied a franchise introduction when his cell move, he says, adding that if phone rang. the league says it’s good, it’s “... my phone rings and it done. was one of the teams I knew “We’re going to take a few was going to vote ‘yes’ for days and revel in our sucus, so I answered in and he cess and then we’ve got to get said, ‘I don’t have the phone down to work.” number for the conference Bachynski says the club’s call, do you have it?’ I didn’t executive will be getting have it on me, so I had to run together to map out a plan upstairs and get it for him. of attack. “Then around [7:40 p.m.], “Certainly, we need to I got a text message from do a couple of things. We the league saying we were in. have to bolster our numbers It was a 15-2 ... we need to We have to vote, so it was get some more buy every stick, volunteers, and an overwhelmevery piece of ing ‘yes’ to let we have some tape, every shin f u n d r a i s i n g us in.” pad – whatever, we have to do This is how we have to buy because we the Wranglers it all.” learned its bid have to raise to purchase a bunch of – Tom Bachynski the Penticton money.” Lakers was The local approved by the league. club purchased the Penticton Bachynski who was abso- Lakers from the Okanagan lutely ecstatic about the Hockey Academy, but results made the good-news because the franchise is run announcement to about 75 by the OHA, the Wranglers people who were attending got none of the club’s assets in Free Press
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Ken Alexander photo
100 Mile House Wranglers Junior B Hockey Club president Tom Bachynski is ecstatic there will be a Junior B hockey team based out of 100 Mile next year. He says it was like getting an early Christmas present when the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League voted 15-2 in favour of the Wranglers purchasing the Penticton Lakers on Dec. 6.
the exchange. “This is like a scratch franchise because [the Lakers] is run by a hockey school and it releases the players at the end of each season. We certainly have the right to talk to the hockey players to talk to them, but we are starting from scratch. “We have to buy every stick, every piece of tape, every shin pad – whatever, we have to buy it all. We have some plans for some great fundraising ideas next year, but we’re going to be
leaning on the community to help us get there. I think we’re going to do it with value added products ... it will all work out.” He adds they intend to have a spring camp to look at players they can pick up for next season. “Really we have to put our nuts and bolts for our [club] together, so we’re ready to go. In my mind, I see a window of about three months that we have to be about as ready as we can be, so we can take the summer to develop our
hockey program to be ready for the main camp in August.” Bachynski says the club has marketing plans and will be talking to the 300 or so folks who have already committed to purchasing season’s tickets in the new year. The executive needs to get together and come up with a time line, he adds, so they can roll out the things that need to be done in an orderly fashion. “Right now, we just need to enjoy the moment. it’s been a Continued on A6