BCHL AGM

This past weekend the BCHL had their annual general meeting. The news coming out of it included Express President and GM Darcy Rota recieving an award and stepping down from his post of chairman of the board for the BCHL. Plus the details of how the schedule will be constructed this season. See the full press release below.

The British Columbia Hockey League held its Annual General Meeting June 2 to 4 in Richmond and met with governors, coaches and team marketers to wrap up the 2010-11 season and set out plans for 2011-12. The coming season will be the league’s 50th anniversary and as it approaches, several celebratory events will be announced.

An important task completed at the AGM was determining the number of home and away games for in-conference play. The half-interlock schedule will have each team play every other team but visit only four rinks in the opposing conference.

Each club will play three of their conference opponents four times at home and four times on the road. Against the remaining four conference opponents, it will be four at home and three on the road.

“We will have the 2011-12 schedule completed by the first week of July,” said BCHL executive director Dave Sales. “Within conference, this is going to be the most balanced schedule we’ve ever seen.”

Another change is that the schedule will start Sept. 23, two weeks later than last year. As such, it has been mandated that each club’s main training camp will begin no sooner than Aug. 22.

With respect to the board of governors, executive committee chairman Darcy Rota of the Coquitlam Express and Vernon Vipers owner Duncan Wray were named co-recipients of the league’s Executive of the Year award. Rota also took the opportunity to announce he is stepping down as chairman and Wray was nominated to take his place and has accepted.

“Both Darcy and Duncan have been exemplary partners in our league and have elevated the BCHL’s status through their dedication,” said league commissioner John Grisdale. “With Duncan moving into the chairman’s role, I know we will not miss a beat moving forward.”

Also, as Wray was already on the executive committee, Westside Warriors owner Mark Cheyne has joined the group to keep it at five members. Surrey’s Ronnie Paterson will continue as co-chair and Trail’s Tom Gawryletz and Alberni Valley’s Andy Oakes stay on board as well.

“I have a great deal of respect for what Darcy did and I understand his reason for moving on,” said Wray, who served a six-year term as chairman prior to Rota. “There are still some things I’d like to accomplish and hopefully I can lead the charge with the new board.”

Personally I like how it looks that the schedule will be put together this season. I would still prefer that the league have a full interlocking schedule and have every team visit every single rink. Back in the 08-09 season when the league most recently had only a half interlocking schedule, we saw the Express play a total of 36 of their 60 games vs. three teams the Powell River Kings, Surrey Eagles and Langley Chiefs. And that was way too many games against just a small handful of teams. This format gives the league a little more balance when it comes to all the opponents in the conference at least.