Lebret Junior hockey Eagles get a remake

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The Lebret Eagles are seeing a lot of change this season. There's a new coach and general manager; there are new uniforms, resembling the current sweaters of the NHL's St. Louis Blues; with only eight veterans returning from last year's club, there's also a lot of new faces in those new sweaters; they also have a new mascot: "Braveheart," who was last seen at the Saskatchewan Indian Winter Games about a year-and-a-half ago before moving his fox's den to the Eagledome. They even have a new theme song - Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business."

And that's just what the club intends to do this season. With a more intensive marketing effort, a ticket selling campaign and work to reconnect the club with the communities surrounding the Eagledome, Lebret enters the 1999-2000 SJHL season by taking care of business, especially in the office.

"We're going out in the community more and we want the communities to get more behind the club," said Mike Walker, acting president of the club's board of directors.

It's a theme repeated by coach and general manager Norm Johnston. "We've gone out and done a job in selling ourselves to the community, and we've also worked very hard within the bands around us to drum up some excitement about the hockey club.

These include visits to schools, chief and council meetings and other band members so people know that the Lebret Eagles are here," he said.

Former club president Noel Starblanket is volunteering as the club's marketing manager. He is working with a Saskatoon marketing company which is promoting the SJHL throughout the province.

"It's been a little bit slow in going back to the sponsors year after year, but they come around eventually," Starblanket said. "They want to see hockey in Lebret and help us out."

The Eagles have two missions. Like the other 12 teams in the SJHL, they want to win the league championship. The Eagles are also called on to develop First Nations players.

This year's Eagles have 10 Native and 10 non-Native players. Player recruitment now comes under Johnston and scouting director Greg Mackie. Veteran hockey players are now being billeted with families in the Fort Qu'Appelle, Lebret, and Balcarres areas. In the first years of operation players instead stayed at dorms at White Calf Collegiate. The dorms will now be for rookie players only. The club will also have a new dorm parent at the Lebret residence.

The club is currently in its season ticket blitz, selling a season pass for $99 for adults, $79 for students, and $49 for children.

"All across the league the clubs are doing it. We're doing that as well," Johnston said.

The club is also promoting more of its 50-50 lottery ticket sales during the games, and expanded its non-smoking area in the lobby. Last season was a tough time for the SJHL in general and its Aboriginally-owned hockey teams in particular. Foundering in a sea of bad debts and front office problems, the Saskatoon Rage folded at the end of the 1998-99 season. The Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation purchased the former Minot Top Guns in 1997 and moved them to their reserve near Duck Lake, but failed to draw fans, get sponsors, or win games. The club was moved to Saskatoon last season.

Poor ticket sales, poor on-ice performance and internal conflicts - which climaxed in a drug charge against one player and a fight between a club executive and an assistant coach in the Eagles' offices - made club officials decide to take stock this season. In addition, the club wants to control costs.

"What we did in terms of our budgets is to take a strong look. We're monitoring expenditures more closely than in previous years," said Walker, who wouldn't say how much money the Eagles lost last season. "Like most of the clubs, we lost a few dollars."

Neither Walker nor Johnston would say how many season tickets have been sold.

"All I know is that there's a heck of a more sold than last year," said Johnston.

When the Star Blanket First Nations were awardd the franchise in 1992, they said they were willing to lose some money with the club for the overall goal of developing Aboriginal youth through the club. But, says Johnston, times have changed since the hockey club first took to the ice.

"Since White Calf Collegiate has been closed - in there they had a cook, they had the dorm, they had the laundry - finances have to be close to self-sufficient."

White Calf Collegiate, Canada's last operating Native school with on-campus residences, closed its doors for the last time in June of 1998. The school was torn down last March.

"The chief and council and Elders (of the Star Blanket First Nations) say we have to make sure the team and the rink doesn't lose a great deal of money. If the band loses money on the hockey team this means other programs which Star Blanket has to provide aren't going to get as much money," Johnston said.

In addition other clubs are having varying degrees of financial problems. Last week the Humboldt Broncos went public with their financial woes as tickets for its club lottery weren't selling. So, why keep the Eagles going?

"You do it for the players," said Walker. "We want to develop our young Native players."

The front office changes parallel the changes fans will see on the ice this season, Johnston predicts.

"We don't dance, we don't freewheel, we want to be a more physical team. We don't have a lot of veterans coming back, and those coming back aren't high profile players. They didn't get a lot of ice time, they didn't get a lot of points.

"Our top player from last year who has come back is Patrick Gosselin. He got 15 goals last season," Johnston added. We're building from the ground up. But if we don't bring our lunch buckets and go to work every night - finishing checks, driving to the net, and just working really hard - we're not going to win.

"You can tell kids how to work, but you have to show then and teach them as well."

After one home game, however, club officials and Johnston like wat they see, especially in the stands. Friday's home opener against the Notre Dame Hounds drew an announced attendance of 1,232. This was a far larger crowd than the Eagles had for most games last season. Many at the game were visitors from other reserves across southern Saskatchewan, as the game was held during ceremonies commemorating the 125th anniversary of Treaty 4, signed by first nations and the federal government in Fort Qu'Appelle in 1874.

Was that the reason for the big crowd? Not as much as the club's new marketing emphasis, said Johnston.

"The club didn't have a crowd this big during Treaty 4 last season."