NIPAWIN — Fans of the Nipawin Hawks can expect to see a lot of younger faces on the ice in the upcoming season.
“We have an opportunity to bring back, I believe it’s six 20 year olds right now,” said Doug Johnson, the team’s head coach, after the team’s annual general meeting on June 18. “We have a bunch of 19 year olds. Our 18 year olds, we won’t have a ton. We will have a lot of 17 year olds, which is uncommon for us.”
Johnson said this year’s team has several returning players.
“We haven’t had a whole lot of recruiting to do. Our back end is an area of concern, our goaltending is an area of concern but we made the trade for Cody Levesque. We have some strong recruits coming in net, so let’s see how it plays out.”
Levesque is a 19 year old goalie from Carnduff. Previously he played with the Weyburn Red Wings.
Mark Chase has been selected to be an assistant coach for the coming year.
“We’re very happy to have him on board.”
At the annual general meeting, the team discussed their finances from the 2017-18 financial year.
Each financial year concludes at the end of June. Due to the time the auditing process takes, it can be October before the board receives the audited statement, making the annual general meeting a financial year behind.
In the 2017-18 year, which was the season the Hawks won the SJHL playoffs, the team made around $135,000, compared to $25,000 the previous year. They had revenues of around $282,000, with more than half of that – around $162,000 – coming from gate admissions, and expenses of around $148,000.
Brenda Kulpa, marketing director for the Nipawin Hawks, said she has no concerns at this point about the 2018-19 season’s finances.
“The audited statement isn’t back yet but we have lots of sponsors stepping up already for next season and more getting on board than usual,” Kulpa said.
She said the Hawks, as a club, depends significantly on fundraising.
“Our corporate sponsors pulled through for us. If our fundraising is strong it will help out. This community has got our back.”
Kulpa said the current fundraising state “could be better”.
During the meeting, it was explained that this year’s board will be working hands-on when it comes to fundraising efforts.
“It’s a lot of hard work and they’ll willing to step up to the plate. We have a lot of members coming back that were on in previous years, so it will be good,” Kulpa said. “They know they’re going to have to be selling tickets, knocking on doors, be active working members. It’s a working board, not just attending a meeting once a month. It’s fundraising for the team.”
This year’s board members include Tom Barrie, Lianna Niedermayer, Briggy Pagan, Ken Snaith, Dean Foster, Greg Haluke, Scott Anderson, Terry Farden, Jon Boxall, Terra Brown, Greg Berg and Dennis Squires.
