Derek Prou spoke to council on January 16, explaining why the Tumbler Ridge Steel Kings season was halted last month, after the then-owner Lauren Barr gave the team back to the league.
“We’ve been putting out fires since the passing of Andre,” says Prou. “There’s lots of moving parts, and these are not ordinary circumstances.”
Prou, the head of the West League of the Greater Metro Hockey League (GMHL), says that he spent a lot of time negotiating with the league over the last month or so.
The team’s troubles started September 28, when then owner Andre Payette passed away suddenly.
While the league found a new head coach and a new owner, the team never really got its footing and Barr left unceremoniously in mid-December.
He says the league approved a one-year postponement of operations in Tumbler Ridge, while things get sorted out. “We were in a position where we had to decide how we could move forward with this year, and we decided we could make a go with Mackenzie. They were ahead of the game having been a part of the league last year, so that’s where I put my energy.
Prou says he will be taking over as head coach and general manager for the remainder of the year. “I want to make sure we get over the finish line and at that time we can retrench and see what possibilities are for next year,” he says. “If [the District] would be open to another run next year, we would look at feasibility of that.”
He says there is support in the town for the team, and believes it will work to bring the team back, but at this point in time, he has more questions than answers.
“We’re trying to wrap out head around agreements made with former owner’s group,” he says. “That’s hard to do with no one there. Right now the West Division has the option for the TR organization since it was defaulted on, but I don’t have any information. For anyone that has existing agreements with the organizations, I would appreciate copies of those agreements. I was forwarded nothing from the previous group, and I need to have a look at that so we can have a look at what was done.”
He says the league is probably not in a position to give everyone refunds, “but it would be good to know what has been promised and what has been exchanged. We would like to make whole on any promises. If anyone bought season tickets, we would honour those for next year; right now we don’t have blank cheques that we can write to everyone, but again, we don’t know what agreements have been entered into.”
Prou says he has only had three or four season ticket holders reach out to him, and expects only 10 total have been sold.
As for the players, Prou says he has only heard from one of them, the former captain, who asked if he could move on to Fox Creek. “He is the only player who tried to reach out to me,” says Prou. “I tried to reach out to all of them; the only one who I did hear from was Mr Okemow. The Fox Creek coach will reach out to him. We did make efforts, but I think some of them have made other plans when they found out the team wasn’t going forward.”
Tumbler RidgeLines reached out to a number of players on the team who say they did make efforts to reach out to the league, though none were willing to comment on the record.
While council has not made a final decision, many of the councillors are in favour of the team coming back next season. “I would like to see the GMHL succeed in Tumbler Ridge,” says Councillor Norbury. He suggests talking to Mackenzie to see how that team succeeded.
Prou says one of the biggest things is to get people involved, be it as a board or a booster club. He suggests also talking to Burns Lake, too. “They do a great job of connecting the dots in a new community. I have spent a fair amount of time in Tumbler Ridge and I think we were on the right path. The staff at the Rec centre was unbelievably helpful. I don’t think it’s a huge leap to get there.”
He says his job is to come into town and try and get the people in place. “The first year is always tough, but all the other teams have 20 or more players. Next year, they’ll have ten or 12 players in place before they even start, because that’s how many players usually come back.”
Part of the trouble, he says, is it is very hard to get people in place—like coaches and managers—in August and September. “That pool gets pretty shallow, because all those guys get taken.” He says having those discussions now and getting someone in place sooner rather than later would be very helpfu
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
