The NOJHL’s Cochrane Crunch have big plans for the 2017-18 season, which includes playing games in Iroquois Falls and Smooth Rock Falls.

However, if two town councillors in Cochrane got their way, those plans may never have left the ground.

In what Crunch head coach, general manager and owner Ryan Leonard can only describe as councillors Renelle Belisle and Jane Skidmore-Fox “nickel and diming” details in the contract negotiations…let’s just take you back to Tuesday, April 18th and a council meeting held at Cochrane town hall.

It started with the town’s Director of Community Services Terry Vachon reading out the changes in the proposed contract on the table.

The contract itself is a three-year deal with a two-year option.

(CLICK HERE to see the April 27th meeting schedule, which also includes that very contract.)

(CLICK HERE to see video of the Cochrane council meeting, starting at around the 33:20 mark and goes for just over an hour.)

Councillor Renelle Belisle was up first when asked for questions and went on to dissect multiple aspects of the contract.

Vachon chimed in a number of times to clarify anything, but it was clear changes in the contract weren’t to her liking.

(Politis presents his stance around the 1:02:00 mark of the video.)

He called Belisle’s points valid, but were more “philosophical differences” and that the revisions in the contract actually benefit the town.

Fellow councillor Jane Skidmore-Fox also raised issues in the contract and Belisle and Politis later had a back-and-forth on more of the terms.

In the end, council chose to defer and hold a special meeting to allow councillors to fully digest the contract details and ask questions then.

Fast-forward to Thursday night, and back at town hall, Belisle and Skidmore-Fox were in the minority as the contract was passed with a 5-2 vote.

However, those nine days and two nays created a spark.

Facebook pages of Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis was flooded with comments in a show of support for the team (which you can also see in this LINK, starting on Page 19.)

Politis said after the vote that he’s happy council got through the discussions with respect.

He adds the two councillors against the deal are entitled to their opinion, and wasn’t really worried about the vote falling through.

“If everyone was saying the same thing all the time, people would raise their eyebrows,” he said, adding the community as a whole supports the team but admits it’s not your typical hockey town.

“(We’re) not your typical blue-collar crowd where they go to these things time and time again.  They want the event to be here so they can go when they want to go and that’s what they tend to do.”

Politis adds the town makes between 30 and 40-thousand dollars a year in new money, plus all the amenities that come with it (like the economic spinoff with hotels and restaurants, which the Mayor estimates is around $750,000 annually.)

The back-and-forth on terms even caused enough worry for NOJHL Commissioner Robert Mazucca to make the trip up from Sudbury for the vote.  He’s happy to have Cochrane remain in the fold.

“There were other options as the Mayor alluded to,” Mazucca said, “But at the end of the day, common sense prevailed as it did and Ryan’s getting ready for next year and so is the town and so is everyone else.”

Cochrane has consistently finished among the NOJHL’s top teams each of their three seasons, including an NOJHL Finals berth in their first season at the THEC and multiple appearances on the Canadian Junior “A” Hockey League’s weekly top 20 rankings.

“You can’t buy that kind of publicity,” the NOJHL commissioner added.

Politis says it was important that Mazucca come up and see the support.  The council chamber was packed with Crunch fans, who held a rally outside town hall before the meeting.

Leonard will admit this has given the team some publicity in the community and is good for the program in that sense.  However, there were some issues as some players they were looking to sign decided to go to other camps due to the uncertainty.

Even Alex Brisson, who played with the team last year sent in a concerned email.

Leonard says he had no plans on going anywhere but “our friends next door were ready with open arms if the councillors didn’t accept our offer.”

Leonard keyed in on Belisle and Skidmore-Fox.

“The problem is we’ve had two councillors who have been negative about the team since we’ve been here and since they’ve gotten to council.  And a lot of them are spreading false information around the community, and it’s been going on now for two years.”

“And finally it just hit them right dead in the face.”

He went on to say everyone the team met with at the city—“administration, the CAO, the head of Park and Recs”—was happy with the “status quo.”

“And all of a sudden, we got a councillor who goes as far as saying we need a water meter on our washing machine in our dressing room, and wanted to start ‘nickel and diming’ us for everything we do in the community.”

The rumour around the Crunch team having free access to the ice surface and the gym, among other amenities was a large part of Leonard’s hour-long press conference held after the town hall meeting.

“We get nothing for free in Cochrane, everything is paid for…none of (the rumours) are true and it’s actually kept people away from the rink that don’t know anything about the Cochrane Crunch in the community,” he said, “So it needed to get out there, it needed to get done and I think we plowed a good trail for ourselves moving forward here for sure…you can just tell by the support in the room tonight.”

Now it’s about getting on the right foot with recruiting, acquiring and renewing sponsors and getting ready for the regular season.

The Crunch also announced to the 65 or so people in attendance that Jamy Bernier—who spent last season as head coach of the recently relocated Iroquois Falls Eskis—is coming on as the Crunch’s new Assistant Coach and Assistant General Manager.

Leonard says he and Bernier—teammates in the Val Gagne Fastball League—have been great friends over the last few years, and says he’s been watching him come up through the coaching ranks.

“I like what he was doing (last year), you could just sit back and watch and he’s doing all the hard work that I’m doing.  Him and his wife (Stephanie Giguere) are running around like my wife (Katherine Leonard) does.  Jamy and his wife are what my wife and I did when I was 26 in Elliot Lake…so I was like ‘We need to get those two people on our team’ and sure enough, we met with them and it worked out perfect.”

Bernier expressed that he was devastated to see his hometown lose the Eskis to Hearst, but will get to join another first-class organization on a full-time basis.

“It was a dream of mine to become coach, eventually made that dream come true, just to see it kind of go away after a year of me being there (was tough),” he said.

“But fortunately Ryan, being a good friend of mine and reaching out and (it turned out) the Crunch were looking for somebody to give a helping hand and come in with somebody who’d had a little bit of experience with the paper work and everything else, all of the other aspects I’ve gotten my feet wet doing the last two years and I thank the Eskis organization for that.”

But you will see Bernier at the Jus Jordan Arena next season at some point.

He, along with the Crunch will play two regular season games in “The Igloo” in 2017-18.  Plus, all their exhibition home games.

Smooth Rock Falls, who hosted a Crunch game on Super Bowl Sunday this year, will host another home game too.

Leonard says it’s all an effort to be known as a regional team and bring communities together.

He told the crowd that it’s also an effort to bring in more sponsors and more dollars to the team, adding businesses in Iroquois Falls have been in contact with the team to lend a hand.

And on top of it all, residents in outlying communities will be offered special rates on Crunch season tickets.

The spirit of Northern Ontario is alive and well.

RETURNING PLAYERS CONFIRMED

Connor Lovie will return as captain.  The NOJHL’s Defenseman of the Year will be flanked once again by a number of returnees on the back end, including Colin Boudreau, Quinn Robelle and Braden King.  On forward, Brisson, Nate Harris, Justin Hess and Austin Whelan are back too.  And in net, Taylor Unruh will be coming back.

POLAR BEAR CLASSIC

There is going to be a meeting in a couple of weeks to discuss the 2017 Polar Bear Classic, an exhibition tournament that began last year with a ceremony to bring the banner of Tim Horton from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto to his hometown.

The OJHL’s Kingston Voyageurs outlasted the Crunch, Eskis, Kirkland Lake Gold Miners and Espanola Express for the championship that came in early-September.

(Guess they do hand out trophies at the beginning of the year…)

“We’re working on it,” Leonard said, “All the teams (that competed last year) want to come back again.”

He mentioned this could also be a joint-venture with Iroquois Falls.

DUSTIN CORDEIRO’S JERSEY RETIREMENT

Longtime Elliot Lake Bobcat/Crunch forward Dustin Cordeiro will have his #22 retired by the team on their first Saturday home game of the season.

Cordeiro played in 200 regular season games in four seasons with the franchise, amassing 122 goals, 103 assists for a total of 225 points.  His 86 points in 2015-16 was fourth in the NOJHL that year.

DUDLEY-HEWITT CUP BID

The Crunch say they will submit a bid to host the 2018-19 Dudley-Hewitt Cup Championship.  Leonard says they came close in their last bid before Kirkland Lake emerged as hosts.

“We’re ready for it,” he added, alluding to the rink setup and the accommodations.

A bid costs $150,000.

 

Filed under: cochrane, Local News, NOJHL, Sports