The Carlyle Cougars senior hockey team will begin play in the Big Six Hockey League at the start of the 2016-17 season if its bid for reinstatement is approved by the league's voting members at a late-April meeting.
Dallas Lequyer, president of the Carlyle Cougars hockey club, said 10 members of the community formed a Cougars board of directors early this month with a mandate of finding players, obtaining sponsorships, meeting with the Big Six Hockey League executive in an attempt to resurrect the team and eventually running the game-day operations. The Cougars were a fixture of the Big Six Hockey League from it's first game in the 1960-61 season to its demise following the 2012-13 campaign.
“We did have some outstanding fines from the last year before we folded, so we have to pay those (and) get everything all up to date with the Big Six and then they actually have to vote,” said Lequyer. “From our initial rumblings and stuff we've heard from them it's not going to be an issue with us getting back into the league.”
Lequyer said it will cost the club approximately $2,900 to rejoin the Big Six Hockey League when taking into consideration the outstanding fines, a $500 performance bond payable to the league prior to commencement of play and getting everything up to date. He said local business PureChem Services has committed to be a major sponsor of the club and is providing financial support to cover a significant portion of the initial costs.
“They're actually right off the bat here financing a lot of the up-front initial costs before we can generate some revenue from ads and sponsorship and that sort of thing,” said Lequyer, noting the team will be called the Carlyle PureChem Cougars this season in recognition of the support.
The main reason for the team folding after the 2012-13 season was a lack of players. Lequyer said 20 guys signed up to play for the team at the beginning of that season, but due to injury problems they were down to 12 skaters by Christmas and only eight to 10 guys by playoff time. He said their recruitment efforts so far have already drawn around 35 guys willing to suit up for the Cougars.
“We haven't really had a board of directors in charge of the team for a lot of years, so this year we're really focused on if you play for the Carlyle Cougars you come here you play hockey,” he said. “You're not involved with any of the behind the scenes stuff. You're there to play hockey, you show up, play, done deal. Everything else is looked after for you. That's why we really wanted to get that board in place so we could have that.”
