The Fort Frances Lakers Junior A hockey club is looking for folks with available room in their homes to accommodate young hockey players coming from out of town to play with the team this coming season.
The community-run team is looking for billets from September 2026 until as late as May 2027, depending on the team’s playoff performance. While the Lakers often sign some local players from the Fort Frances area, many others come from across North America.
Sarah Kivimaki, the Lakers board president and billet co-ordinator, has been hosting players in her home for six years now. She says being a billet host has created lasting relationships with the players who have lived in their home.
“We still keep in contact with the boys,” Kivimaki told The Times. “They just become part of your family, you know. They text me on Mother’s Day, or they call me on my birthday. It’s just really cool to see them, even after they finish the Laker program, grow up and be a productive part of this world.”
The job of being a billet parent is not particularly difficult, but the Lakers do have a set of requirements for billets. Players require a room either to themselves or shared with another player. They can’t share a room with a non-player, but many players do prefer to room with a teammate, Kivimaki said. And it can smooth things for the host, too.
“I’ve had a single billet and I’ve had double billets, and I have to say, having two is almost easier,” she said. “They have a buddy.”
Kivimaki said that her family has formed great connections with billets in the past, but how involved everyone becomes in each other’s lives is a matter of choice.
“I guess it really depends on the player and the host family,” she said.
“For myself, I’m really involved; I treat them like they’re my own kids. If I’m there, I make them breakfast. If they need lunch, I pack them a lunch for the day. We always sit down at supper together. I love to be busy, so I do their laundry and things like that. We often play games like cribbage, or we’ll find a good Netflix series and watch that together. They’re very involved in with our family, like even with my mom, my kids, grandparents, my kids, you know, they go to watch my little cousins at a skating competition. They’re just part of your family.”
Another general requirement is that billets provide players with at least one hot meal per day and then access to the kitchen and pantry for the rest of their meals, providing healthy options. Billets receive a $600 monthly stipend towards food costs. The players must also have access to laundry facilities and the internet. Many players have access to vehicles and others can get to practices and games with a teammate.
The team does their best to pair billets with families based on preferences and factors such as food or pet allergies. Some players will have vehicles while others won’t, so depending on those circumstances, they could accept billets from as far away as Bear’s Pass or Reef Point east of Fort Frances and go as far west as Emo. Anyone over 18 years old in the household must pass a criminal record check, costs of which the team will reimburse. The team has a billet handbook that it reviews at the start of the season with players and billet families.
Sam Korzinski and her husband James Kinghorn billeted Lakers goalie Nolan Koethler last season, and she agreed that the experience was overwhelmingly positive.
“Taking in a billet player is a rewarding experience,” Korzinski said. “It does not take long for them to become part of your family. Another good part of being a billet family is the connections you make—you build not only lasting relationships with your billet but also with their parents and family. You also become part of a community of other billet families who understand the experience.”
“It’s not just about giving a kid a place to stay; it’s about the experience and creating lifelong friendships.”
When Koethler’s season ended early after he was thrown from a tractor while working on his family’s farm in Alberta, fracturing his spine, it was devastating, Korzinski said.
“It was a big blow to the team, but it was like missing a piece in our home. We were sad we didn’t get to say goodbye, and we were heartbroken for him that he didn’t get to play; he had worked so hard.”
As the billet coordinator, Kivimaki is also available to help mediate if there are any issues between parties.
“That’s one of my crucial roles as a billet coordinator, is if there’s an issue with the home or with the player, that’s our first thing. The player or the family will reach out to me, and I’ll see if I can help solve it,” she said.
“If not, then we’ll kind of get together and have a round table discussion, if that’s the proper way to do it. Very rarely does it ever have to get to the coach. In fact, I’ve never had an issue we couldn’t work out, and it’s really just always a lack of communication, or it’s just a difficult conversation that needs to be had. Nothing crazy has ever happened in my six years of being the billet coordinator.”
The Lakers also have different perks for billet families, including a season pass per player per billet family, up to two players, and the Lakers family weekend is always a hit, too.
“It’s a big weekend, we get everybody together, the billet families and the players families, and it gives them an opportunity to see who’s taking care of their boy when he’s away, and gives us a chance to connect and celebrate what great men the parents have raised, because they’re all so very respectful. I’ve never had one billet who’s ever given me any grief. Then we honour everybody on ice. We have some sort of meal together, a meet and greet at Hallet Brewing; it’s an awesome weekend.”
Kivimaki also added a personal anecdote from a past family weekend.
“The two billets I had were Dylan Wedward and Ryan Tanner; their families came, and we stayed up until like 4:30 in the morning on Saturday, just visiting,” she said. “It’s amazing how two strangers you welcome into your home can bring together six people, three families. It’s just amazing.”
Kivimaki says the connections are what it’s all about.
“It’s the connections and the lifelong relationships you make with these boys, and you’re their home away from home,” she said.
“You celebrate the wins, you pacify the losses, you help them continue and to grow to be fine young men, and it’s just really, it’s such a unique part of being involved in a hockey program, that a lot of people don’t realize how wonderful it is until they do it.”
The Lakers will likely see some new faces on the team this year as several players have aged out, and given the success the team saw last year, other players will move on to higher levels of hockey as well.
The Lakers will kick off their SIJHL season this September, looking to complete the job of winning the Superior International Junior Hockey League’s Bill Salonen Cup.
