Senior A hockey application
By Chris Abbott
Tillsonburg News
An application has been made to have a Senior A men’s hockey team in Tillsonburg next season.
Mike Holly and Dan Hambleton traveled to Wingham on Thursday to make a presentation to the Western Ontario Athletic Association (WOAA) Senior A league. Holly spoke on the business side of the application, and Hambleton on the hockey.
Their one-hour presentation went well, said Hambleton, and the committee seemed “pleased with it.” Along with a multi-media photo presentation, they had letters supporting the Senior A application from Tillsonburg deputy mayor Mark Renaud, the Town of Tillsonburg, Tillsonburg Minor Hockey Inc., and Club Oxford.
“It went real well,” said Hambleton. “Walter Palermo did some pictures of the arena, and we went through those first. The NHL-size ice pad… The game time on Saturday night, they were pretty happy with the early (7:30 p.m.) time. We did that because of the traveling – we knew traveling was going to be an issue. Get these teams in here a little earlier, and they get home earlier. On their schedule a lot of these centres don’t play until 8:30 at night. Most of the games are Fridays, Saturdays, and the odd Sunday afternoon.
“They were pretty happy with it. One of the things that’s good for Tillsonburg is they want to expand. They want to expand down here and maybe in a few years form South, Central and North Divisions. We’re hoping Tillsonburg gets on board, and say within a year or two, centres like Simcoe, Dorchester, Aylmer, who knows? Maybe they join too. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
“We spoke to a committee, and it goes to a final committee for voting on Wednesday, May 14… so we’ll know on May 15 if the team’s a go or not.
“It looks good, it really looks good,” summed up Hambleton.
“At the end, there were two concerns that popped up,” he added. “We’ve addressed both of them.”
First, they had to determine the exact population of Tillsonburg. As of Friday, it was 14,822. Players from communities larger than 15,000 are designated imports in the WOAA league, which poses a problem when teams only have up to five imports.
“If it was over 15,000, they’re not saying you can’t have a team, but any player within the town boundaries would be an import,” said Hambleton. “But that’s not an issue for us – we just made it under the 15,000.
“The other issue was travel. We addressed that too. Mike did a survey on it with Mapquest.”
Using Thornbury (Georgian Bay River Rats) as a comparison, they calculated travel distances from Thornbury to other North Division teams. That overall ‘mileage’ was compared to Tillsonburg travel distances to South Division teams. The difference was marginal.
“There’s two divisions, and they don’t play each other in the regular season,” said Hambleton.
Imports
Players from more than 60 km away, or players who come from a centre with a population greater than 15,000 are designated imports.
There is, however, a non-resident rule, which allows players who developed in local minor hockey system, but have moved away (job/school), to come back and play without being an import.
