WolfPack hockey to return Friday in Logan Lake after 12-year hiatus

TRU hockey went the way of the dodo in 2014, the men’s team folding after operating for five seasons in the BCIHL.

This past summer, the Miners ditched their moniker and joined the WolfPack ranks as a self-funded club program that will feature men’s and women’s teams this season.

The women will play in a series of tournaments, the first of which is slated for November in Logan Lake. CFJC will catch up with the women’s squad next month.

Friesen (GM and head coach of the men’s and women’s clubs) said the branding change has been a boon for recruiting, eliminating some confusion that was prohibitive for prospective players.

“You don’t have to explain that, ‘We are university hockey, but not tied to university,’” Friesen said. “We’re just explaining that, ‘Hey, we want you to come play for Thompson Rivers University.’”

With about 13 new recruits, Friesen is touting a much-improved club from the one that posted eight wins in 20 games last season.

“One-hundred per cent,” Friesen said. “Just with the quality of people who we were able to have conversations with through the summer after it got announced and, honestly, the conversations I’m already having for players for the 2027-28 season, it’s drastically different than when I first started here.”

The five-team circuit – which includes the Miners, Vancouver Island University Mariners of Nanaimo, University of Victoria Vikes, Simon Fraser University Red Leafs of Burnaby and Lakers (who draw from Kelowna schools Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan) – is populated heavily by former junior players who love the game and wish to continue playing competitively while pursuing an education.

Nathan Bohmer of Crowsnest Pass, Alta., found his way to TRU after landing with the Kamloops Storm of the now-defunct Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) for his 20-year-old campaign.

“And that’s where I met Grant, who kind of swayed me to keep playing,” Bohmer said.

KIJHL graduate Taylor Schmideder of Kimberley is among the trades students on the team.

“It was always kind of the goal for me to play university, to pay back my parents for everything they put in, and all the work I put in,” he said.

Jordan Lario of Cranbrook followed a significant other to Kamloops.

“I was just going to hang them up, but then my girlfriend at the time wanted to go to TRU,” said Lario, formerly captain of the Golden Rockets in the KIJHL. “She got accepted here and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Maybe I’ll take my life a little more seriously, get into a trade and get something going with my life.’”

Plumber-in-training Hudson Clarke of Kamloops said he is proud to be representing his hometown university.

“[We have a] bunch of trades guys,” said Clarke, a Storm graduate. “I know them all. They’re all hard-working guys and it’s just a good identity to have on the ice.”

They might come from different places, but they have at least one thing in common.

“The love of the game, right?” Bohmer said.

Notwithstanding any minor sports miracles, none of them are destined to play in the NHL.

They have committed to drive to Logan Lake from Kamloops three times a week to practice and to travel throughout winter to Vancouver Island, the Coast and Okanagan because they haven’t given up on hockey dreams, even if those look a little different these days.

“Life after junior… I could have not played, but there would be something missing, for sure,” Bohmer said.

“It’s awesome. We have such a great fan base. For the town of Logan Lake to welcome us as kind of a newer team and show up to our games and endorse this program, it’s awesome to play in front of them.”

The Highland Valley Athletes Society, a non-profit organization, will continue to run the WolfPack hockey operation.

Home games will be played at the Logan Lake Recreation Centre, with the likely exception of a student night or two in Kamloops.

The game on Friday night will mark the first regular-season BCIHL WolfPack hockey contest in 12 years.

“They’re a physical hockey club that likes to try and kind of drag you into the mud, I guess would be the nicest way to put that,” Friesen said of the Lakers.

The WolfPack plan to play between the whistles, but the former Miners are not afraid of the muck.

“We’re tough, physical and fast,” Friesen said. “We want to attack. We don’t want to sit back and trap or play defensively. We want to be in your face. We want to initiate action.”

by Marty Hastings

WolfPack hockey to return Friday in Logan Lake after 12-year hiatus

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