Frontenacs Scout Beau Moyer on the ice in the GTA. The North Bay product also coaches Minor Bantam with the Vaughan Vipers. PHOTO SUBMITTED.
Beau Moyer never thought he would be coming back to his hometown in a refurbished arena to watch Ontario Hockey League playoff action again.
“It wasn’t something I really thought about but its great to have the OHL back in North Bay and the people definitely supporting the team in the proper fashion,” said Moyer.
“I don’t know its just nice to see the Frontenacs play any time I have a chance.”
The 34-year-old grew up in North Bay, was drafted by the North Bay Centennials in 1998 and was a head coach of the North Bay Midget AAA Trappers for a year and a half between 2007 and 2009.
In 2011, he got his first OHL scouting job working in the Toronto area as a scout for the Kingston Frontenacs.
His connection came when he was coaching minor bantam with the Don Mills Flyers.
That year he coached Doug Gilmour’s son Jake Gilmour and Battalion forward Calvin Gomes.
That’s when the relationship between Moyer and the current Fronts owner began.
“The one thing about Doug is he’s really easy to talk to and he values your opinion,” noted Moyer.
“He wants everyone to be honest and straight to the point if we like somebody, we like someone as a player. He's definitely one who has a lot of trust in our scouting staff and confidence in what we do," Moyer said about Gilmour who was inundated with autograph and photo seekers when he was attending the two games in North Bay last weekend.
“It’s funny, I ran into Calvin Gomes during Friday nights game who also played on that Don Mills team with Jake, and just seeing the kids progress over the years, they were 13 then - just seeing them mature, their bodies evolve. Both of them you probably wouldn’t have picked out right away as OHLers but they definitely have earned their stripes.”
Moyer says he watches as many at 175 minor midget games each year preparing for the OHL Priority Selection, which takes place next weekend on April 11th.
“It’s basically analyzing and dissecting each and every kid from September to basically the middle of March and then we compose our lists at the OHL Cup,” said Moyer.
“You know we are a smaller scouting staff, there’s just 6 of us so everybody has got a say and we have great leadership with our head scout Jeff McKercher, he gives everyone a solid voice to be a part and make sure that our work is noticed.”
While Moyer enjoys coming up to North Bay during the summer to golf, he never had a chance to see the new rink until last Friday. Despite being drafted by a North Bay OHL team, he didn’t feel strange coming into Memorial Gardens and cheering for the visiting Frontenacs in Game’s 1 and 2.
“There’s no different feelings or anything like that, I just want to see our club go as far as possible, I think everybody in the city of Kingston deserves to see this team take that next step.”
