After another year of 1660 Hockey League play is over, the ice out of the Rotary Spirit Centre and a new president has been named for the Westlock Minor Hockey Association.
A decisive election at the club’s annual general meeting April 20 has placed midget coach and association vice-president Rick Dutchak in the coveted seat as now-past president Denise Boulerice stepped down.
Dutchak, who played in the association as a kid, has been a coach for the past 12 years and moved to the board’s executive in 2014 as treasurer, becoming vice-president in 2015.
Among his top goals, Dutchak said recruitment of players and volunteers to help with day-to-day functions will be paramount.
“The biggest thing we need to keep going is our upward growth,” Dutchak said. “We gained players last year and this year we’re projecting as many as 170 kids to join.”
Of 2015, Dutchak also praised the association’s efforts to implement new half-ice games for initiation players.
“We got that halfway through the season. Now that we have it set up for our I Love Hockey trials in October, we’ll hopefully retain a lot more initiation players.”
Dutchak’s election also brings an end to Boulerice’s three-year stint as president.
Though she will step down, Boulerice retains her position on the board as past-president and will continue to help plan 2016 association events.
Looking back on her presidency, Boulerice called her reign a time of improvement, not just for the association, but for its working relationships with other league sports in Westlock.
“We are one of those community associations that works well with other user groups at the Rotary Spirit Centre,” Boulerice said.
“We have built our relationships so that, overall, we’re not fighting for players. Everybody’s supporting everyone so that youth can be more active and have more options. It’s nice not to be fighting for ice time or locker space.”
Moving forward, there’s much to do for the association and its executive.
On the horizon, she explained, is a potential interlock league that has been proposed between the 1660 Hockey League and three other northern Alberta leagues — North Central, North Eastern, and Sturgeon Pembina.
The interlock play would give Westlock players the option to face-off against other teams outside of their traditional play area in additional, league-point games.
“We haven’t had any kind of good proposals like this in my time, but we aren’t sure yet. We have to ask more questions about what that looks like,” Boulerice said.
