Letter to the Editor

As I write this message, I can’t help but think of the old saying, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”

My name is Joey Leach and I am a proud former member of the Kootenay ICE. I played four seasons in Cranbrook and grew to love many things about the place that I called home each winter. I personally owe this organization a lifetime of gratitude because I met my wife while playing there nearly eight years ago. I was placed with an incredible billet family that took me in as a son, a brother and my entire family was welcomed with open arms. That’s something a general manager doesn’t get credit for doing but I am truly grateful for the family I was given. I am not much for public speaking and I’m definitely not a writer, but please take a minute to hear me out.

When I think about Cranbrook I can still hear the game day announcer saying “the home of your own Koooootenay ICE!” and I still feel the same adrenalin I felt as a teenager chasing my dream.

Do you think Cranbrook will be able to replace the entertainment of watching a WHL team? I hate to admit it, but if it’s even possible I didn’t think it would be in my lifetime or yours. So why aren’t people getting out and supporting?

I’ve read and heard opinions on ticket prices and did some research. The ticket prices may seem high but they are comparable with every other WHL team in the league. Cranbrook offers a fantastic facility that the entire community benefits from. It creates jobs and entertainment for more than the Kootenay ICE but also the people of Cranbrook.

The amount of high-end talent we have seen on the ice throughout the years is remarkable and as a community we should be proud of who we get to go out and support. Many of these young athletes have ended up at the top playing on your TV screen in the NHL.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about some of the fans I had the privilege of meeting when I played there, who looked me in the eye and told me how getting to watch us play week-after-week made their winter months enjoyable. What will those fans do instead all winter?

I can’t imagine what Cranbrook would be like without the team there. On the surface, the entertainment level will never be replaced but when you dig deeper and look at the business the team brings to the entire community. Opposing teams coming and staying at hotels, visiting restaurants, families coming to visit, relationships of people who continue to visit our community long after their children have played there or even just coming in for training camps.

In the four years I played with the Kootenay ICE I learned things that made me who I am today. I learned the importance of hard work, dedication, teamwork, balance and how to be a respectable member of a community. Our coaches taught us how to win, and they taught us how to handle losing which is a pretty tough thing to teach a group of young men. I know a lot of people may have forgotten this somewhere over the years but Mr. Chynoweth knows how to build a winning team, and a respectable team in the community.

Every player on the team goes out and volunteers in the community throughout the entire season. They go to schools where they read to kids, play games with them and they talk about their experiences and opportunities as an athlete. They get to be positive role models for hundreds of children each hockey season in the school system and the community.

Players visit the hospital and deliver teddy bears each year and that’s something hundreds of people benefit from and moments the players will never forget. Something I don’t think has been touched on is the fact that all these players have moved away from their homes, they are without their families, their friends and their support system. So you, the fans, are what get us through. You become our friends and you become the support system we need to make it through a hockey season.

Going to a game and playing your heart out in front of people who support you the same way that you would be supported if you were playing in front of your family is a feeling I’ll never forget. Kootenay ICE fans you DO matter. Your support is needed and appreciated especially when the team is struggling and I only wish I could help you see exactly how much your support matters to all the players on the team.

Like I said in the beginning, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone and I truly hope that this doesn’t become a reality for Cranbrook.

So please, get out and support these young athletes who need you while you still can.

Sincerely, 

Joey Leach #24

Joey Leach was drafted by the Calgary Flames (73rd overall) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He is currently splitting his playing time with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League and South Carolina Stingrays of the East Coast Hockey League.

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