OLDS — Several members of the Olds Grizzlys who won the Centennial Cup and three Alberta Junior Hockey League championships want to rekindle that “glory” in today’s team.
Hints have been dropped that that might include more involvement from some of those former players.
When those guys got together to be inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame on May 26, about 30 of them gathered that weekend at Josh Erdman’s home in Red Deer to reminisce about those teams.
That in turn led to theories about how to improve today’s Grizzly squads that have been mired in the basement of the eight-team AJHL’s South Division basement for years.
Two of those vets – Erdman, the current Grizzlys president, and Jeramie Heistad – spoke about those ideas during an interview with the Albertan.
Heistad said the guys hanging out and playing golf that weekend spent a lot of time “spit-balling ideas of how we can support the organization moving forward and what that would look like.”
“Some guys have more time, more money, whatever. But there was a collective group sense that guys want to be more involved,” he said.
“I think there’s probably going to be some positive things on the horizon with the organization,” Heistad said but indicated that would be something for the club to announce if it happens.
Several years ago, a group of Grizzlys veterans and others got together and bought the team to keep it in Olds, as there was talk of moving it out of town.
"I think there’s been stumbling blocks out of the gate with the new ownership group and that; just trying to figure out what direction and how to do it and everything else,” Heistad said.
Erdman noted that the 1991-1994 alumni who gathered at his place and talked about the current team featured players from across the province and the world.
“I’m out of touch with hockey,” said Erdman, who currently operates a parking lot business in Red Deer.
Erdman said his current goal is to make the Grizzlys financially stable.
“You can't say anything for sure’s going to happen, but I would bet if I sent out an email to those guys that were there, I could probably get five grand out of every one of them and just put their name on a wall somewhere and they’d be happy,” he said.
“That’s how much interest they’ve got to support the team.”
Another problem, Heistad said, is today’s players want stability and assurance they’re going to play.
Part of that stability he said, comes from having the same coaching staff and billets and low turnover among players.
He and Erdman said that's different from their day, when they were just grateful to make the team.
Heistad wondered if it might be better to recruit local players rather than importing Americans, as occasionally happens.
“You look at the SJHL (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League), the majority of kids on SJHL teams are from Saskatchewan and they still compete really well,” Heistad said.
“In the Centennial Cup, they compete very well, so it’s like hmmm, let’s think about this, right?”
Heistad said he’d also like to see the Grizzlys “take the chance” on developing some talented younger guys – giving them more rein – like maybe on the powerplay even though it might be tempting to give that responsibility to older players.
He admitted that another problem is some teams in the league have brand new – or very new – rinks, something that attracts a lot of players.
Heistad also said kids want to play on winning teams. Thus, it’s really tough to recruit them to your team if your team hasn’t been winning.
“It’s like, just, you know, winning breeds winning,” he said.
Erdman said good opportunities for scholarships also attract players.
