BARRHEAD – Hockey was Reinhold Koberstein’s life and passion.
And it was a passion he passed on to his boys, Don and Brian and the community in general through the Barrhead Junior Elks Junior ‘B’ hockey team.
That is what sons Brian, Don and brother and sisters-in-law Cal and Brenda Visser said while reminiscing around the Visser’s dining room table Aug. 7, a few days after Reiny’s passing.
Don, Brian, and Cal all played for Reiny while Brenda served for many years on the franchise’s executive in multiple roles. She also served for several years in the league’s head office.
Reiny passed away peacefully in his sleep Aug. 2 at the age of 84.
He was born in Gardenview, a small hamlet, near Barrhead and was a lifetime farmer. An active member of the community, he belonged to the Barrhead Lighthorse Association, Barrhead Feeder Association, Kinsmen, Barrhead’s air cadets, as well as the various sporting associations and like most farmers held several part-time jobs, including at the Barrhead Leader.
That being said, what Reiny is best known for is for hockey, most notably as the manager and head coach of the Barrhead Junior Elks.
And Don said he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“In our house, there was never any question that hockey was king.”
The Barrhead Jr Elks played in the Central Alberta Junior Hockey League from 1969 to 1990. Reiny was the manager and coach for all but one of those years. The team’s moniker, and colours, came from the Barrhead Elks, the team’s main sponsor.
“The Elks were a big thing and something that truly brought the community together,” Don said.
Cal and Brenda agreed — in its heyday in the late 70s and early 80s, the Elks would pack the old arena and when the team went on the road legions of fans would follow the club.
“I equate it, to small-town America Friday night football,” Don said.
“People would come from miles to see the games, they knew all the players. To this day
40 years after I stopped playing, people will approach me saying how much they enjoyed the games arriving early to get a seat under the arena’s heaters.”
Brenda remembered one time when a group of Barrhead fans chartered a plane to follow the Elks on a long road-trip to southern Alberta during the playoffs.
For the majority of the franchise’s road games, the Elks arrived at the opposing rink, in an old school bus painted white and purple.
“He should have bought farm equipment instead,” Brian joked, adding the bus was known to break down at the most inopportune times.
Cal remembers just such a trip to Terrace, B.C. in -40 degree weather for an exhibition game.
The Elks often found themselves taking long road trips, due to the strength of the league and calibre of play. At the time, the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), a Junior ‘A’ hockey league didn’t have a strong foothold in the province.
As a result, the majority, if not all the teams in the CAJHL, were Western Hockey League (WHL) affiliates, including the Elks, a feeder team for the Calgary Centennials.
And of course, guiding the Elks was Reiny. He began his coaching career in 1967 coaching midget hockey. Shortly after Reiny also took on the responsibility for coaching Barrhead’s juvenile entry. Back in the day midgets were 15 and 16 years old while juvenile teams were 17 and 18 years old.
Cal noted the juvenile level, now defunct, was created to give high school players who did not want to or were not at the level of junior a place to play.
“My dad liked those guys and coaching [both midget and juvenile] so much that he followed those guys all the way through, helping get Barrhead into the junior league,” Don said.
Although Reiny is known for his coaching abilities, Brenda said, people often don’t remember what a good scout he was.
“I can’t remember how many trips he made to Red Deer to get a player registered to play,” she said.
One of the players Reiny scouted was a young Neerlandia player named Cal Visser who played for him on the Elks when he was only 15-years-old filling in during the playoffs.
Brenda added it wasn’t a straight forward affair to get her now-husband registered to play. The couple got married when he was 20 years old in his final year with the Elks.
At the time Cal’s mother could not provide a copy of his birth certificate to get him registered noting Reiny went to a lot of effort and miles to get a copy to prove he was old enough to play.
Cal said the other problem was that he couldn’t get back and forth to practices and games from Neerlandia.
“I had no wheels,” he said, noting his father had passed away and his mother couldn’t get him to the rink. “So Reiny would lend me his Buick on practice and game days.”
Brian said his father’s strength as a coach and his legacy to the community was his ability to reach youth.
“He wasn’t an Xs and Os type of coach, but what he did have is an uncanny ability to reach those kids who we might describe today as being on the outside or on the fringe,” Brian said. “To take kids who weren’t disciplined in any other facet of their life and were on the wrong track and he got them on the right path.”
He noted many of those kids still live in the area and are now community leaders.
Brian added another proud moment for Reiny was when his grandson Nikolas Koberstein was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the fifth round, 124th overall. In 2014. After being drafted Koberstein elected to go the college route playing for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks while pursuing a degree in business administration.
After graduating and the Nanooks season ended, Koberstein played for the Kansas City Mavericks in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). The Mavericks are affiliated with the Calgary Flames.
Don agreed with his brother that his father’s greatest ability as a coach was his capacity to get a group of players and get them to work for one common goal and to pass on his love for the game.
“Reiny’s first love was hockey and coaching ... he was able to create enthusiasm and passion for the game and he knew if his players had that everything else would fall into place,” he said.
