LAC LA BICHE - The Lac La Biche Clippers are taking a year off from the North Eastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League.
The 2022-23 season began last week in the eight-team hockey league, without the Clippers.
"There's no Clippers team this year. We took a year off from Junior B," said the team's assistant coach Willie Abougouche.
His flat response hid some disappointment — but not all of it.
"There's a lack of interest. We had no new board members,and not enough local kids coming out to skate," he said. "It hasn't been great."
The team tryouts held in mid-September did produce some decent talent .... just not enough of it.
The team had coaching support ready to go, but little else.
"We just didn't have the support to put the team together," he told the Lac La Biche POST newsroom this week, explaining that a call-out for billet families resulted in just one household offering to take in an out-of-town player.
Abougouche and a small core of team volunteers are hoping the season away will open a few doors for the team.
"We're thinking that in the year off we can find some new faces to be board members and we can get someone who can help us with recruiting local players and others," he said.
This year's NEAJBHL includes 8 teams from across the region. The teams are: the St. Paul Canadiens, Killam Wheat Kings, Lloydminster Bandits, Vermilion Tigers, Cold Lake Ice, Wainwright Bisons, the Onion Lake Border Chiefs and the Vegreville Rangers. The Border Chiefs and Rangers didn't play in the league last year. The Lac La Biche Junior B Clippers didn't make the playoffs in the 2021-22 season, finishing the regular season in last place with just six wins in 22 games.
Lac La Biche junior B supporters rallied in 2017 to bring back the Clippers to the community after a decade-long absence. The team did well in its return, finishing at the top of the league in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
Season starts
So far this year, the St. Paul Canadiens and the Killam Wheat Kings are at the top of the league standings with two wins in two games played. Those standings will change by the new week as the Canadiens played two games over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Clippers do own a team bus that they have rented out to other community sports groups in recent years, Abougouche said team officials haven't discussed any plans for the bus while the team is dormant.
