Hockeyville revisited

Former Olympic gold medal winner Cassie Campbell explores the legacy of Hockeyville Monday at the Turcotte outdoor rink in West Ferris. Photos provided by Chris Dawson.

It was an exciting day for local hockey fans Monday as a CBC Hockey Night In Canada Hockeyville camera crew, which included former captain of the Canadian Women's Olympic Hockey Team Cassie Campbell, was in the Bay shooting a feature on the legacy of Hockeyville.

"Basically this year for the Kraft Hockeyville contest we are sort of going back and taking a look at the city and taking a look at the cities and the towns who won previously," Campbell explains.

"So North Bay winning Kraft Hockeyville in 2007 we are back to look at the impact that winning that contest has had on the community and of course on the game of hockey."

Although the visit was short Campbell says by watching and talking with community leaders there has been a definite impact on the game after winning the coveted Hockeyville title.

"Well I think first and foremost it brought the community together to do something big and made people in the community work as a team."

"Obviously here in North Bay it helped with minor hockey and the numbers, we are seeing women's teams and more boys teams and more minor hockey numbers here and with the Lakers that whole idea kind of stemmed from the fact that people came out and supported Kraft Hockeyville, so they will come out and support a university team."

"So I think it has had a great impact on the contest in winning and you can just tell it brought this community together even more than it already was before."

The chair of North Bay's Hockeyville bid Chris Dawson echoed Campbell's thoughts saying the win has made everyone work harder to make hockey better in the city.

"A lot of things have changed hockey wise in our city since we won the Hockeyville competition in 2007. I think it gave people in the city the
confidence to work harder to make hockey better in our city."

We have seen that with Al McDonald and Dennis Lathem's private partnership with Nipissing University to bring Lakers hockey here as well as the establishment of an indoor hockey synthetic ice training centre started by the Gravelle brothers. Now with Summer/Spring hockey helping develop better players and the affiliation agreement with the Trappers program I think we are seeing more good coming from the game - and most of these changes came after we were named the Hockeyville champion in 2007."

"I think the legacy is that by working together we can make hockey better in our city," he adds.

Campbell notes the game is not without its struggles and like every other business or organisation the game of hockey feels the current economic conditions.

"It's an expensive sport there's no question about it and I know that numbers in Canada are only growing because of women's hockey."

"So it is definitely a concern for Hockey Canada even the NHL to continue to support the game at the grass roots level and the NHLPA does the same as well so it is an expensive sport so just finding ways to limit the costs and make sure all kids have an opportunity to play I think it is important for everyone in this game."

Campbell also notes that with the increase of numbers of women in the game the equality factor is leveling out.

"You know it's funny when I had an opportunity this morning to meet the Icebolts and I was watching them with their jerseys and their equipment and they all have the same gloves and the same helmets you know that was something my brothers' teams had growing up but for us it was a mishmash of whatever we could find we've got these old cheap jerseys, and now to see the women's teams you know a great example here in North Bay that they're getting the same stuff, the cool equipment, they are getting access to ice time," she states.

"It's seen as they're taking it a bit more professionally at the minor league level and I think there is just more opportunity which is really what it is all about especially for female hockey. So it's definitely changed and I think our team being successful at the Olympics and the US being successful in 1998 and Sweden and Finland and all of these other countries that are doing great things internationally I think it's helped the game overall."

The Olympic gold medal winner says with all the upsets in women's hockey over the last four year cycle she expects some exciting things to happen at the 2010 Olympics and can't peg a winner at this point.

"I think this Olympics will have the most parity of women's hockey that we have ever seen before."

"This four year cycle we've had the Swiss upset Sweden, we've had the US upset Canada in the last two world championships, and Finland upset the US and Sweden upset Canada so there has been a lot of great movement within the game that I think just makes it better and better."