Rebels need to rebuild minor hockey ties, former owner says
Local players encouraged to play elsewhere, Patton says
The biggest challenge for the new owners of the Campbellford Rebels will be winning the support of local coaches and parents in order to keep players in their hometown, says Larry Patton who sold the team after trying and failing for more than four years to get that support.
When I wrote about the new owners of the Rebels last week, I tried to contact Patton but got no response. On the weekend he returned from Costa Rica and discovered his Bell phone had not been retrieving calls or emails.
So yesterday we discussed the frustrations he faced after taking over the club from Michelle Cross and what the new owners — Daniel Giddings, Dave Marsh, and Bryce Ellis — need to do to succeed.
Patton says there is a fractured relationship between the Rebels and the minor hockey association that’s meant that for the last decade or more good players who want to continue playing hockey in their later teens are encouraged by their coaches to play for other teams.
The Rebel’s lack of local players is also a factor keeping attendance down.
He frequently ran into this problem and by last winter was talking to Marsh about possibly selling. In August he decided that he’d had enough.
“My last straw this year was there were six kids that could have come up for tryouts and they all went to either Frankford or Picton,” he says. “We'd have an exhibition game we're playing against five local kids. Yeah, that was the last straw.”
One outside group also approached Patton about buying the team, but the discussion went nowhere because they wanted to move the team and he said the league would not have permitted that.
Patton says the fact that Marsh and Ellis have strong local ties should help them. He also notes that local businesses have always supported the team and sponsorships have gone well. And he has high praise for the town staff who have kept the aging arena functioning and dealt with sudden issues like broken pipes.
Patton had several frank discussions with the new owners. “I've told these guys to make this thing work you have to get minor hockey back on board,” he says.
“These guys are well aware it's going to take at least three to five years minimum for these kids to be competitive.”
He supports the new owners’ efforts to include team alumni in events and promotions, saying there have been challenges in the past due to some personal animosities.
Patton says Campbellford and other teams from small towns also face a challenge in the Provincial Junior Hockey League because some teams have wealthy owners who entice good players to join their teams.
“Two years ago, we had the eight wins and we had five kids that were there from the Cobourg-Port Hope area. They were good hockey players. All five were tampered with and they ended up going to another centre.”