Joey Payeur
The drive for five is alive.
Fort Frances High School athletic director Shane Beckett has confirmed plans are in the works to submit a bid to host the OFSAA ‘AA’ boys’ hockey championship as early as 2017.
“The Blueline Club, and especially Bob Miller, have been thinking about it for a while,” noted Beckett.
“In the last couple of weeks, they decide to go ahead.
“We’ve gone through the steps on how to submit our bid and now our intention is to submit,” he added.
Fort Frances will be looking to host the event for the fifth time after what were widely considered as masterful jobs in 1977, 1982, the still-memorable championship year of 1989, and the last time in 2006.
“Everyone involved in high school hockey in the province knows our reputation,” said Beckett.
“Since our last time in 2006, we still hear from schools about what an amazing job we did.
“It’s something schools in the southern part of the province can’t match,” he noted. “We’d have two schools from deep in southern Ontario playing and hundreds of people coming [out] to watch the game.
“At our last trip to OFSAA a couple of years ago, we had more fans in attendance for our opening game than the host team, Peterborough, had for theirs.”
Beckett remembered the unbridled dedication that existed here for the Muskie program, especially in the glory days of the 1986 and 1989 championship seasons.
“My buddies and I used to go get autographs from the Muskies at that time,” he recalled.
“[Current Muskie girls’ head coach] Scott Clendenning signed a stick for me and so did Todd Hamilton.
“You aspired to be these guys,” Beckett stressed.
Some of that black-and-gold passion has dissipated since the birth of Junior ‘A’ hockey here, with the Fort Frances Lakers now significantly outdrawing their Muskie counterparts.
“Back then, the Muskies were the only show in town,” reasoned Beckett.
“That’s why having OFSAA here is so important,” he said. “It helps showcase the program to not only the rest of the province but the community, and especially the kids in the community.”
The economic impact of hosting OFSAA also had a positive ripple effect throughout Fort Frances in the past—something that Beckett said is definitely in demand these days.
“In this day and age with the town in a rocky financial situation because of the mill shutdown, any move that can help the town and the school is very welcome,” he remarked.
The plan to aim at hosting OFSAA in 2017 is rooted in necessity and logic.
“It’s a huge undertaking to host and it’s at least a three-year process when you look at making the bid and then getting everything ready to host,” Beckett explained.
“To do it at the highest level, it’s not something you can just whip together,” he stressed.
“It takes people who want to do it because of their commitment behind the plan; not just doing it on a whim.”
Beckett said it’s a tale of two opinions for visiting teams who have come to town in the past for OFSAA.
“Schools don’t enjoy travelling all the way up here,” he noted. “Then they love it when they’re up here.”
A possible speed bump on Fort Frances’ road to landing the boys’ championship is the fact Kenora will host the OFSAA ‘AA’ girls’ hockey tournament next spring.
“With the same association based in Northwestern Ontario responsible for submitting Kenora’s 2015 girls’ bid and our bid for 2017, there might be a negative effect with both events happening so close together,” conceded Beckett.
He also explained the main reason why Fort Frances hasn’t made a bid recently for an OFSAA championship in any other sport.
“We just don’t have the facilities to host any other sports like basketball or volleyball,” he said.
Fort Frances will submit its bid at the regional level in April, when the decision will be made to forward the bid to OFSAA for consideration as soon as this fall.
