KI holds special meeting to discuss league expansion Sunday in Castlegar
By Nelson Daily Sports
If you build it, they will come.
It appears the movie Field of Dreams, substituting Kootenay International Junior Hockey League President Bill Ohlhausen for actor Kevin Costner, will make a special showing during a meeting of the Board of Governors Sunday in Castlegar.
The KIJHL has long been building since the league is started in 1966. And now the Junior B league is considering more expansion after interest was expressed by a group of hockey people in both Quesnel and Williams Lake to join.
“The meeting has been called to allow all of league teams to express their concerns and desires on how to move forward with the league,” KIJHL President Bill Ohlhausen told The Nelson Daily Thursday.
“Some of the things the governors will be looking include expansion.”
Olhausen, Beaver Valley President Dennis Bedin and Columbia Valley Rockies President Graeme Anderson met with representatives of the two expansion clubs January 8 in 100 Mile House.
At the meeting both representatives from both Quesnel and Williams Lake, expressed their reasons on why the two cities are seeking expansion franchises.
“They told us they haven’t had any hockey for a number of years and are missing a huge social aspect to the communities,” Ohlhausen explained.
“Both cities used to have teams in the BC (Junior) Hockey League and realize they feel they are being left out of the Canadian Hockey culture.”
Quesnel, with a ton of hockey history, lost its Millionaires franchise in 2011 when the club was moved to Chilliwack.
Williams Lake TimberWolves was folded by the BCHL for not being a franchise in good standing after accumulating enormous debt to local businesses and to the league.
The KIJHL currently has 20 teams consisting of four divisions of five teams.
There are two conferences — Kootenay and Okanagan/Shuswap.
100 Mile House Wranglers is the closest team to the two expansion hopefuls, having been relocated to the Central BC city in 2013.
The Wranglers won the KIJHL title last season along with the Cyclone Taylor and Keystone Cups.
But is the KIJHL simply too large of a league geographically already?
Following years of playing an interlocking schedule, this off season governors decided to cut expenses by reduring the number of regular season games as well as dumping inter-conference play between the Kootenay and Okanagan/Shuswap.
Ohlhausen said two-thirds of the existing 20 KIJHL teams must vote in favour of expansion to allow Quesnel and Williams Lake into the league.
Then BC Hockey, which need application by April 1, needs to approve the expansion.
This season marks the KIJHL's 50th anniversary, with the Creston Valley Thunder Cats hosting the Cyclone Taylor Cup April 6-9.
Sunday's meeting is set for 11 a.m. in Castlegar at the Sandman Inn.
Leafs looking to increase its lead in Murdoch Division
Nelson Leafs are looking to put some distance between Murdoch rivals Castlegar and Grand Forks when the Heritage City club continues its extended home stand with games Saturday and Sunday against the Rebels and Bruins, respectively.
Second-place Nelson holds a slim two-point lead over third-place Castlegar and three ahead of the Bruins.
Nelson is 3-0-0-2 since opening up the home stand December 31.
Game time 7 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday.