The Barrhead Steelers may be missing out on playing in the Northern Central League (NCL) this year, but the topic is still up in the air.
The Executive Director for the Minor Hockey League missed some important emails, and meetings that would have placed the team comfortably on the schedule for the league, however because of the lack of response, the NCL has turned down their request for the time being.
For the past two years the Steelers have started their season off in the 1660 league, playing tier three level teams, which is equivalent to a B team.
The Steelers however, are an A level team, and after several weeks would soon be recommended to move on to the NCL.
“We would play a couple games… and then they say okay you should go and join this North Central League,” Jason Murrell, coach of the Barrhead Steelers said. “For the past two years that is what has happened.”
Last year the team won the league as well as provincials.
The Executive of the Barrhead Minor Hockey Association was lead to believe this year would play out the same.
“About two weeks ago… The Barrhead Minor Hockey Executive went to a meeting for the 1660, and at that meeting they were told that there are no teams for the Barrhead Steelers to play against, so instead of waiting for tiering… just go to the NCL right away,” Murrell explained. “The executive made a mistake and did not contact the NCL right away.”
According to Murrell the NCL attempted to contact someone in regards to the Steelers joining the league, however they did not contact the right person.
“Irregardless they contacted our executive and our executive failed to attend meetings that say we wanted in… That being said we missed a bunch of dates and in order to get accepted into the NCL, because we are out of their main boundary area, there is an association wide vote,” Murrell explained.
This association involves 40 communities whose teams are involved in the NCL.
“In order for teams to be allowed into the NCL they have to have a vote with all of those associations present,” Murrell said, adding that the meeting where the voting takes place has already come and gone.
“Now it is past that date,” he said. “We have missed a bunch of meetings and dates and letting them know we wanted into that league.”
Murrell has been pushing in the hopes of getting the team in.
“I have really been grilling the NCL, and I have contacted Hockey Alberta… in trying to persuade them into letting us in,” Murrell said. “I have been trying really hard to get us back into the league.”
According to Murrell Hockey Alberta did not push as hard as the team had hoped, however the NCL is still mulling over the idea of letting them join the league.
“I’m not holding my breath that they are going to let us in,” he said.
Because the NCL is on the fence about allowing the Steelers to play, the team will now be participating in three tiering games in the 1660 league.
“Now that those decisions were made the 1660 said okay, you guys need a place to play,” Murrell said. “What they have done is taken two or three teams that he thinks are going to be the toughest competition for us and he has given us three games to play in part of the tiering schedule.”
“Until those games are played it is tough to know for sure, but the fellow who does the tiering for 1660 has a very good idea of what’s going to happen this year,” Murrell said. “We do have a place to play right now.”
If the Steelers play the games strongly and beat the other teams, the 1660 may ask the Steelers to step out of the league.
According to Murrell if this happens, and the NCL does not change their mind, there won’t be many opportunities for the Steelers to play.
“At the Midget level there are not a lot of tournaments or exhibition games that can be picked up,” Murrell said, adding that the other Midget teams in the area play in a league and are generally kept busy.
The Steelers will be playing locally for a tiering game on Sunday, Oct. 12 at 1:15 p.m. in the Barrhead Agrena.
“I really don’t know what to expect,” Murrell said. “The NCL is a Midget A league, this is kind of Midget B, C, D. It’s tough, you don’t want to downgrade what is left in the league in regards to teams.”
Murrell continued by saying that the teams they played last year in the NCL were evenly matched and posed as a strong competition.
“We had to fight for every game we played last year, and it just helped us in the end,” Murrell said.
The players are taking it in stride and hope for the best, Murrell said, however some parents are not taking the news lightly.
“There are same parents that are pretty cheesed off, and there’s other parents who are like well I guess we just deal with whatever we can do,” he said.
As of right now the Steelers’ season is up in the air, but Murrell is keeping his fingers crossed.
The NCL is still debating over whether or not the team will join the league, but Murrell is hoping things will take a turn for the better.
