It’s one thing for a player to play an entire career with one team.
But the whole team playing together?
For the Cremona Cowboys, riding off into the sunset as a group is a fitting end to their motion picture.
Players in the Cowboys’ graduating midget class of 2014 can count 10+ years of playing hockey together - from tyke right up to midget. It’s something Cowboys assistant coach Brent Verner recounts with pride, as his team ages out of the Central Alberta Hockey League.
“It’s a group of kids who have played together right from your lowest level of hockey,” Verner recounted. “The majority of these players have played together since tykes, now they’re in their graduating year.”
The Cowboys finished second in Central Alberta Hockey League tier 2 midget play this season and made it to the league semifinal before being ousted by Medicine Hat. The Cowboys were also league tier 2 semifinalists in 2013.
For the last four seasons, former Western Hockey League players Ross Parsons and Jordie Fike coached the Cowboys. The Cremona Minor Hockey alums added a boost to the program with their presence.
“They always let us know that when they were growing up, they didn’t have a chance to do this because they ended up going to the WHL at a really young age,” Verner offered. “So they weren’t able to play with their buddies and in front of their friends and families. They got a real kick out of coaching and seeing everybody in the community rally around these boys. Saturday nights at the Cremona rink were something special. It was pretty neat.”
Parsons played for the Regina Pats from 1993-96, and Fike played for the Portland Winter Hawks from 2003-07. Fike now races chuckwagons on the World Pro Chuckwagon Association’s Half Mile of Hell, and will be racing in the Calgary Stampede’s Rangeland Derby flying the BD&P Put the Boots to Hunger canvas.
Verner said the coaching duo brought a taste of the heat and light of big-time hockey to the Cowboys’ dressing room.
“At the end of the season, Parsons and Fike gave the each player a leather shaving kit with the player’s initials engraved on it,” Verner recalled. “This is what Ross’s coach did when he first got in with the Regina Pats. He came in and gave all the rookies a shaving kit with their initials on it.”
Verner’s thankful for their participation, and for the decade of hockey the Cremona Cowboys have had together.
“It is a testament to Ross and Jordie giving their time. The other important thing, at the end of the year, what they’d say to the kids is not only are you better hockey players, you are better young men now.”
