Hockey has been a staple in Carlyle since the early years of the community with the first skating rink being built in 1903 regular games being held between Carlyle, Arcola, and Reston, MB, by 1905. Carlyle has been missing a part of this long standing, rich hockey culture for the past three years with the Cougars Senior Men’s team having dissolved in 2013. After this three year drought, however, senior men’s hockey is possibly making a comeback to the community as players from the 2012-13 team are looking to bring back senior hockey to Carlyle.
“We’re trying to make it happen, whether it comes together or not, who knows, but we’re working on bringing it back,” Dallas Lequyer, a former Cougars player, explained. “So, we’re holding an executive meeting on [Wednesday] March 2nd and anyone interested in being involved is welcome.”
The meeting on March 2nd will occur at 7 p.m. at the Carlyle Arena.
“People interested in playing, coaching, being a board member, and just anyone interested in helping out is welcome to stop by.”
“We’re looking for anyone willing to volunteer their time,” Lequyer said. “We’ll need to put in a bit of effort in the beginning to get this started up again.”
“So, on March 2nd we’re looking to set up the board and then we’ll move on from there once the board is formalized. We have some already showing interest in playing and we hope to find more as well.”
“Everyone I’ve talked to is really excited about it coming back and there are about a half a dozen people seriously interested in helping it start up again.”
The meeting on March 2nd will look to find a volunteer board including positions for President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Player Representative, and Marketing.
“We’re looking for board members, but not everyone wants to be on the board, so if anyone is interested in just helping out we hope to see them at the meeting,” Lequyer explained.
The break following the 2012-13 season occurred due to a lack of commitment by players. To have a competitive team, according to Clayton Geiger – a past player with the Cougars – told The Observer in an interview from 2013, to be competitive in the league a total of 15 players are needed.
Lequyer added to this notion saying, “That last season we started with around 18 or 20 players and by Christmas we were down to 12, then we were down to eight or nine at the end of the season. Guys were just fading out for whatever reason.”
Those working to bring the Cougars back, however, have already found many people interested in playing and supporting the team.
“We’ve already seen quite a bit of interest for the upcoming season though and our goal is to find guys willing to commit for the whole year.”
Those looking to bring the Cougars back have already looked into re-joining the Big Six League, which will be easy to do Lequyer explained.
Ultimately whether the team is resurrected or not will hinge on the March second meeting which will focus on forming the board and drumming up interest in the team once again.
“We’re really hoping for a good turnout and we’ll move forward from there,” Lequyer said.
For more information contact Dallas Lequyer at (306)575-7235 or [email protected].
