The arrival of U18 AAA hockey in Estevan is a reflection of the determination and perseverance to bring the highest level of minor hockey to the Energy City and to southeast Saskatchewan.
Chad Farr, who was at the helm of the bid to land the Estevan Eclipse Downhole Solutions U18 AAA Bears, said it started about two years ago with the realignment of the Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA) and repositioning of AAA teams in the province.
SHA began its realignment with female AAA hockey teams, which resulted in eight teams being reduced to seven. Weyburn, which has had the female AAA Gold Wings hockey team for more than a decade, asked the Estevan Minor Hockey Association for support to keep the Gold Wings program going.
The effort succeeded, and then the attention shifted to bringing male U18 AAA hockey to Estevan.
“Weyburn Minor Hockey would support Estevan Minor Hockey’s proposal for a (female) AAA team and the application to reposition a (male) team here,” said Farr.
A formal application was submitted in the spring of 2019, and Estevan was awarded an expansion team in the Saskatchewan U18 AAA Hockey League in November 2019, joining 11 other teams from across the province.
“I felt confident in our group and our committee to put together a really professional proposal to bring a team to Estevan,” said Farr, who believed that the southeast needed a male AAA hockey team.
Based on the number of kids from Estevan and other southeast communities who were going to other areas of the province to play midget AAA hockey, Farr had what he called a “quiet confidence” that they would be successful.
“We put together one heck of a proposal thanks to our committee and Becky Westling (from the City of Estevan),” said Farr.
The committee consisted of Farr, Kraig Wanner, Blake Jamieson, Greg Hoffort, Nathan Johnson, Brad Robinson, Doug Martens, Chad Jesse and the late Ron Areshenkoff. Roy Ludwig, Jeff Pierson and Ryan Siever came on board later.
“We put a committee together where we all had good backgrounds in what we needed to accomplish, and relied on their expertise to perform and bring it forward,” said Farr.
Most members of the group are still involved, and they’re all part of it for the right reasons.
From there, the focus shifted to hockey operations. The Bears brought in Cole Zahn to be the president of hockey operations, and they started the selection process for a head coach and general manager.
“We had about 17 applicants from … all over North America, and Cole and the group selected Jeff Smith as our head coach,” said Farr.
Smith was no stranger to local hockey fans, as he had been an assistant coach with the Estevan Bruins since January 2018. The move to hire Smith proved to be a popular one in the community.
Riley Hengen of Estevan and Willy Mason and Jason Johnstone of Weyburn are assistant coaches. Mason is a former Estevan Bruin.
“I made a couple of calls into Weyburn because I saw that to make this team successful was the relationship between Estevan Minor Hockey and Weyburn Minor Hockey was to have representatives from Weyburn,” said Farr.
Scouts from throughout the region were also added to the team.
The Bears announced their recruits in May, and held their first training camp in August. Then they, and the other U18 AAA teams in Saskatchewan, had to wait for the green light from the Saskatchewan Health Authority to play games.
They had a couple of exhibition games against the Notre Dame Hounds in October, and then they played their first-ever regular season game against the Regina Pat Canadians on Nov 1.
Estevan lost that game 9-1 to a team expected to be the best in the South Division this season. Carson Birnie of Arcola scored the Bears first-ever goal.
But they learned a lot from that game, and picked up their first-ever regular season point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Swift Current Legionnaires on Nov. 6.
Estevan was supposed to play their first home regular season game on Nov. 8, but it was postponed due to a snowstorm.
The home opener is now scheduled for Nov. 15 against the Yorkton Maulers at Affinity Place at 4 p.m.
Farr said it has been great to see the team on the ice.
“It’s been rewarding to see the smiles on the kids’ faces and the team play its first exhibition game at home. Obviously this year it’s our first season and we’re hoping to be competitive in the South Division,” he said.
