Joey Payeur
The hope in the conference room was that the event being attended was not going to be the last of its kind.
But it will be a year of crossed fingers and bated breath ahead for the Fort Frances Lakers, who held their annual general meeting Monday at the Super 8 Motel.
As he had stated in a previous story in the Times, Lakers’ president Milt Strachan said the time is now for the community to prove it still wants Junior ‘A’ hockey here.
“We need more support from local people,” he once again stressed.
“If they want to have a team in this town, they have to support it on a regular basis.”
Lower attendance last season, combined with a shorter playoff run than when the team won the SIJHL crown the previous three years, have combined to put an even darker cloud over the Lakers’ fortunes than initially thought.
Financial records presented at the meeting show the team had a $54,725.28 deficit by the end of its fiscal year April 30.
That’s well above Strachan’s prediction of between $40,000-$45,000 he had offered in the earlier article.
“There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it,” he declared Monday.
“We’re shy [more than] $50,000 from balancing the books and that’s too big a number to carry forward and add to,” he warned.
“We have to find other ways to make things work.”
Lakers’ general manager and head coach Wayne Strachan then provided a season recap.
He made it clear that even though the team lost six players because their junior eligibility expired, there are no guarantees for anyone else from last year’s team that they will have a spot waiting for them come fall.
“The coaching staff has been looking at the character of the players who could be returning and decided we’re going to make some changes,” Wayne Strachan confirmed.
“We’ll start touching base with the veterans this week.”
He revealed the Lakers already have two new players committed to the squad, who will be announced tomorrow when SIJHL teams officially can start signing players.
Wayne Strachan also said the team hopes to run a tryout camp July 14-16 at Bronco Arena in International Falls.
“We’ve had more interest from American players this year,” he noted.
The Lakers will hold their main training camp Aug. 31-Sept. 2 at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Wayne Strachan said plans were in the works for four pre-season games, but he was waiting to hear back from a couple of teams to finalize the schedule.
The SIJHL regular season begins Sept. 22, with the full schedule to be decided on during the league’s annual general meeting June 28.
The Lakers still need a full-time trainer, having filled the position last season partially with former trainer Dale Cooper coming back to help out while the coaching staff had to pick up some of the trainer’s responsibilities.
The team also confirmed the annual Bob Mainville Memorial Golf Tournament will be held July 8 at Heron Landing (Couchiching).
