The outgoing president of the Olds Grizzlys has raised concerns that the team's new president faces a potential conflict of interest since his son is a goaltender for the team.
Russell Jemieff was elected the Alberta Junior Hockey League team's new president at the club's annual general meeting on June 26.
But despite Jemieff's record of having several years of experience with Hockey Alberta, chairing that organization's player development committee, coaching several different levels of hockey and coaching in Europe for 11 years, outgoing Grizzlys president Henry Czarnota argued against Jemieff's inclusion on the team's board of directors because Jemieff's son, Ethan, was one of the team's goaltenders last season and will likely continue in that role this season.
Czarnota said while he respected the elder Jemieff's hockey background, such a situation could put Brett Hopfe, the team's head coach, and Ethan in a difficult position.
Once Ethan leaves the team, however, Czarnota said he would welcome Jemieff's experience on the board.
Jemieff said he thought his experience would outweigh any perceived conflict of interest.
“I had a lot of people from the public come forward and they said, ‘Russ, it's time you came on the board' and I made the decision to put my name forward to see where it will stand,” he said.
As the team's new president, Jemieff said he hopes to improve the club's financial fortunes.
The team faces a debt of just more than $100,000.
“We want to move forward and take a look at where we are financially. We have to keep on digging out of the debt,” said Russell Jemieff.
The board will meet this week to discuss ways of how it can reduce the team's debt, Jemieff said.
“I think we have to watch every penny that we're spending right now and take a look at our sponsorship. It's been great over the past years. We're going to have to ask for community help once again, but just basically buckling down, watching our pennies and moving forward,” he said.
Czarnota, who chaired the meeting as president before Jemieff's election, suggested that a director residency requirement be written into the board's bylaws to ensure that because of the debt, that people from outside the area don't take control of the board and potentially move the team at some point in the future.
He said there are several communities such as Cochrane that would like to have an AJHL franchise and if outsiders were to get on the board in sufficient numbers and the team continued to struggle financially, those directors from outside the area could decide at some point in the future to move the team.
Czarnota suggested that over the next 10 months the board discuss the residency requirement.
Jemieff said the board will review that suggestion in the coming months.
