Local bid for all-Ontarios ‘looking good’

The last time Fort Frances hosted the all-Ontario high school hockey championships, the hometown crowd witnessed a Hollywood ending as their beloved Muskies captured provincial gold.
The sequel has been 14 years in the making, but it’s now closer than ever to becoming reality.
As first reported in Monday’s Daily Bulletin, Fort High principal Ian Simpson said there was a “good chance” the town may land the right to host OFSAA in 2005.
“It still has to be formally approved, but it’s looking good,” Simpson said about the opportunity for Fort Frances to host its first provincial puck tourney since 1989.
“We’ve held it twice before here, and we always pack the arena and put on a good show,” Simpson added.
The official word won’t be handed down until at least April 11-12, when OFSAA’s board of directors hold their spring meeting—and it make take as long as the OFSAA legislative council session June 19-20 to be confirmed.
Fort High submitted its bid to host the provincial championship at the NWOSSAA winter meetings late last year, with the association then deciding to forward the bid to OFSAA.
“We’ve been discussing it locally for about a year,” said Simpson. “It’s one of the endeavours that the school and the community work together so well on.
“In order to even attempt to hold an event of this magnitude, we need the support of the [Muskie] Blueline Club,” he noted. “Everybody involved with them was really supportive of the idea.”
Dryden was the last NWOSSAA school to host the all-Ontarios, doing so in both 1993 and 1998.
Simpson noted top-quality high school hockey won’t be the only benefit coming this way should the town get the nod to host OFSAA.
“You’ve got an influx of 400 kids, coaches, and parents into the area,” he remarked. “That makes for pretty good business for local hotels and restaurants.
“Plus, it brings a lot of press to the area.”
Simpson didn’t think the community’s past history of hosting the event, or the team’s three provincial titles, hold as much of a factor in Fort Frances possibly landing the event as what he saw as an awakening on the part of OFSAA to the viability of holding feature tournaments in this region.
“We used to have to fight to get our share of events, but now we’re getting very good at getting them,” he noted. “[OFSAA] is starting to realize that there is a northern area beyond Barrie.”