When the Westshore Wolves open their inaugural season in the Vancouver Island Junior B Hockey League on Sept. 5, head coach Vic Gervais knows that he will at least some experienced players in the lineup.
The Wolves' management team of Gervais, associate coach Jackson Penney and general manager Ken Carson have been kept busy trying to assemble a competitive team for the upcoming season.
"This is not an easy task to start a team from scratch,'' said Gervais. "Because we didn't have a roster to work with, we did spent some money to get some players.''
Some of the players coming to the Wolves with experience are Kyle Richter, Clay Carson, Josh Bloomenthal, Kayle Ramsay, Joel Gordon, goaltender Matt Chester, Max Mois, Dayne Ellison, Curtis Bellamy, Chris McDonald and Travis Oickle.
Carson, Gordon, Chester, Ellison and Oickle all played with the Kerry Park Islanders last year while Richter was with the league-champion Victoria Cougars.
Bloomenthal, Ramsay and McDonald were all with the Peninsula Panthers last year.
"We have some good people in our organization who have stepped up and found billets and players as well as working full time,'' said Gervais. "Jackson [Penney] has lots of experience in this league and he won a league title with Peninsula. Brad Palmer will also be coming around to help us out.
"When we start playing this year, we want to have the majority of our players coming from the area and make it a community hockey team.''
The Wolves open the season on Sept. 5 at home at Bear Mountain Arena against Kerry Park. Game time is 7: 30 p.m. Admission will be free for the Wolves' first game.
"Most of our home games will be on Wednesdays and we want to make that a tradition for the fans in the area.''
Gervais and his staff will be kept busy until then assessing talent and visiting other camps. The main camp for the Wolves starts at 9 p.m. on Monday at Juan de Fuca.
"I'm expecting to have a pretty small main camp as a lot of our players will be attending junior A camps,'' said Gervais.
The Wolves have six exhibition game scheduled, including three at the Kerry Park Tournament on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Aug. 29, the Wolves will play the Saanich Braves, 7: 30 p.m. at Bear Mountain and then on the 30, they will travel to Archie Browning for a test against the Cougars. The Wolves will conclude the exhibition schedule on Aug. 31 against the Braves with a 7: 30 p.m. start at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
After the 48-game regular season is completed, all nine teams will be in the playoff with a bit of a wrinkle. On Feb. 18, Wild Card Sunday will be held at Bear Mountain with the lastplace team from the South Division taking on the lastplace team from the North Division in a sudden-death game to determine the last playoff spot.
The other teams in the league are Comox Valley Glacier Kings, the Campbell River Storm, the Oceanside Generals and the Nanaimo Buccaneers. [email protected]
