He shoots, he scores! Hockey is the great Canadian pastime. Canadians whether they can skate or not seem to love the sport. Amazed by the skill and when young emulate their heroes on the ice. Locally the love of the game is evident; but, without an NHL team in Saskatchewan or a nearby WHL team small town communities rally around their minor hockey and senior hockey teams.
Here in Carlyle it was no different, but this year the Cougars senior team will not be iced. They will be taking, hopefully, only one year off; though there are concerns in the community that one year could easily turn into more which has happened in small town communities before.
President of the Big 6 League, Emile Balogh of Kipling, explained: "It's a big part of the community and to lose your senior hockey team is difficult. We lost ours for about 10 years and we were just lucky to have strong minor hockey until it started up again otherwise I don't know if the rink would have been able to open."
Between minor hockey and figure skating in Carlyle there is still a strong rink culture, but the fast paced senior hockey the community has grown to love will be taking a break.
Issues arose last year with the difficulties associated with no executive and finishing the year with eight players.
Clayton Geiger, one of those who attempted to ice the team this year and has played previously with the Cougars, said, ". . . we have no executive left which didn't help things, so it was just kind of the players running it the last few years, which makes it too tough for the guys to kind of play and look after the executive part of it. Last year we finished with, I think, eight guys and in order to have a team to compete in that league you need at least 15 guys every night. Our numbers heading in were nowhere near 15, so we had to take a year of absence."
"Just a one year of absence and hopefully next year we'll fire it up again."
Last year's difficulties were exacerbated at the end of the year when members quit or were unable to find the time off from work.
"We always had a full squad, but last year we had a few guys we didn't know were going to quit, quit," Geiger stated, "And others had some work problems."
Going into this season there were eight players wanting to be involved, but in addition to not having enough to be competitive there was a question of who the goaltender would be this year. Thus, due to these difficulties the players decided to take a year off from icing the Cougars Sr. Men's team.
Overall the league has been affected, but will continue on.
"It's never good to be down a team," Balogh said. "It [the league] will go on, I just hope it doesn't keep going down."
For those players in Carlyle hoping to still find time on the ice competing, their intentions are to try out for other teams in the area such as the Arcola/Kisbey Combines or Wawota Flyers. So, although the Cougars will not be playing this year, local athletes will still be involved and senior hockey in the area will be available to those interested in watching good, fast-paced gameplay.
