The puck has dropped, and a new junior hockey team is coming to west coast of B.C., this time on the Sunshine Coast.
The Pacific Junior Hockey League announced on Tuesday that Gibsons will be home to a new team starting in the 2024-25 season. The team will play out of the Gibsons and Area Community Centre and will play games with other teams in the PJHL.
The team is being led by multiple people including Rick Hopper, Stuart Frizzell, business owner Julie Reeves and investor John Hulstein.
Frizzell, the president of the Sunshine Coast Junior Hockey Society, says this has been a long time in the making and it was not approved in the past because of geographical considerations.
“Living on the Sunshine Coast has some travel concerns. We’re joining a league based out of the Lower Mainland, so all the other franchises are based in the Fraser Valley and the Greater Vancouver area,” said Frizzell.
“A major one was the logistics around the travel to get up and back and fitting into their game schedule.”
To see the team approved is an important step, according to Frizzell. Because of the team’s set start date, it will fall into the Junior A designation after the league was granted a move to Junior A from Junior B last month.
He adds the team will likely bring more revenue to the area and opportunities for young people.
“Certainly, the economic activity that it’s going to generate in those winter months when we’re typically not as active on the coast is going to be a big boom for many businesses,” said Frizzell.
“The cultural benefit is also well documented. When a town takes on a junior hockey team, it becomes a real social hub and for the young kids playing sports to have a high-level sports model right in their backyard is a real inspiration.”
Frizzell says the next step to building the team will be choosing a name, and he hopes the community can bring creativity to the table.
“There’s going to be a competition for naming the team, so the community is going to get involved right away with any suggestions,” he said.
After that, the logo will be designed, and all the pieces will start coming together and get staffing involved.
In the meantime, Frizzell says they are looking for new members and contributions from the community to help them build dressing rooms at the community centre, a training facility and others.
“We’d love to welcome anyone that would like to join the team and the team behind the team,” he added.
