To say the fall of the Yorkton Terriers Junior Hockey Club was about as far as a team can plummet would be an understatement.
In a 10-month period the team went from hoisting the Royal Bank Cup as National Junior ‘A’ champions last May, to missing the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoffs in February with the worst record in the league.
But this is not about the rapid decline, either to point out reasons for the fall, or to lament the early end to Junior hockey in the city this year.
What it is about is the banquet held Thursday to hand out team awards.
It was interesting to see the size of the audience. It was not the year on the ice anyone from players, to coaches, to fans wanted, but the faithful were still out to say thanks for the season.
It was equally interesting to hear speakers talk about the season.
They did not talk of failure, but of how we often learn more important lessons through the rough spots of life than through the good.
Now no one is denying the high this community felt when Derek Falloon scored the overtime winner in the RBC Cup final in Vernon, B.C.
But would the team have managed its two-goal comeback late in the third period, or the OT-winner, had they not experienced a 1-0 loss to Brooks to eliminate the Terriers in the Western Canada Cup. It was a heartbreaking loss, as the Terriers rang a possible tying goal off the post.
It was also something which had to leave a bitter taste in the players mouths, one they had to want to avoid in the RBC final, and it showed in their effort.
And now the Terriers, 17 of whom are eligible to return in the fall have to feel the disappointment of a season lost. It has to be something they can draw on next year on nights they need a little extra motivation to win.
If that is not the case, the lesson learned may be that hockey is not where they should be focusing their efforts.
As for fans, sure we are not happy that the Terriers missed the playoffs. We live and die with our team, and no hockey in March for the first time in years feels a bit like death to many avid fans.
We however need to recognize the Terriers have had years of strong playoff runs, and one year on the outside looking in is not a disaster. The Terriers are not the Edmonton Oilers years removed from a good year, or worse yet baseball’s Chicago Cubs.
Perhaps Dr. Johann Roodt summed it up best at the banquet. He noted he was not born a hockey fan. But in Yorkton he became one. He still does not have a favourite National Hockey League team though. Instead, the Terriers are his team.
It was a theme team marketing manager Don Chesney touched on too. A former Junior player himself years ago, he related how he felt as though he’d made the NHL when he made the Melville Millionaires. He still feels that way after decades assuming about every role possible in Junior hockey.
It all comes down to win, or lose, Junior hockey is special for the players, and for its fans, and one season, bad as it may have been, does not change that.
