INNISFAIL – The Town of Innisfail and the City of Lacombe are proudly showing their hockey loyalties.
Council members from both communities are doing it by wearing the jerseys of their respective senior men’s hockey teams as they battle it out in the best-of-seven North Central Hockey League finals.
At a recent Innisfail town council meeting, each elected member, led by mayor Jean Barclay, proudly put on an Innisfail Eagles jersey.
Todd Becker, the town's chief administrative officer, also joined in.
In Lacombe, mayor Grant Creasey led his council to put on the jerseys of the defending league champion Lacombe Generals.
The Eagles currently lead the final series two games to one with Game 4 is set for Friday, March 21 at the Innisfail Twin Arena. Puck drop is 8 p.m. Game 5 is on March 22 and back to Lacombe’s Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex. Puck drop is 7:45 p.m.
And the passion for the game and a prestigious hockey title has clearly swept both municipalities.
“I approached Frank Creasy, mayor of Lacombe, at the Alberta Municipalities convention last week, and challenged him with a friendly bet,” said Barclay. “We thought we would throw the jerseys on and show our support for the Eagles, and we're hoping the next time we see those jerseys on non-hockey people they will be worn by Lacombe city council at one of their regular council meetings.”
What is also clear is Barclay’s longstanding personal passion for hockey.
The mayor has a long admirable history in the sport.
As a teenager growing up in Innisfail more than a half century ago, Barclay was a star player for the Innisfail Lions Club women’s hockey team in the Central Alberta Ladies Hockey League during a time when organized women’s hockey in the region was almost unheard of.
In fact, her hockey talents earned rave local newspaper reviews, which the modest Barclay will share privately but not publicly.
Barclay, who also excelled in other sports, is reticent about taking any credit for being a trailblazer for women’s hockey in the region.
But it was an experience she fondly remembers.
“It was really a phenomenon back in those days, as you can imagine. We had a small league. There was Innisfail, Olds, Didsbury and Bowden, and we got to the odd tournament here and there,” said Barclay, adding her team would get practice time at six in the morning at the old Innisfail Memorial Arena.
“I remember in the first year I had a very dear friend , and this was back in a day when women's hockey was a bit of a phenomena, and her mom would never let her daughter play hockey because it just wouldn't be the thing for young ladies,” said Barclay.
“She would tell her mom that she was going to figure skating practice.”
But 50 years later Barclay still loves to skate, whenever she can find the time.
And she will also never stop loving hockey.
But today her enthusiasm for the game is focused on the Innisfail Eagles and the community they represent.
“They’ve created a lot of excitement, and now to see them in the finals is fantastic,” said Barclay. “It’s great hockey, and we certainly encourage people to go watch it.”
