President's Letter

August 15, 2024

Hello all,

We are now wrapping up a transformational 2024 season which showed significant growth in the number of adult and youth participants. KBHA was able to build out capacity through a passionate group of volunteers who took initiative to achieve key objectives of growth and awareness. These successes have brought a handful of learning experiences for us to help address some key areas of growth and competitive balance.

We awarded our first ever youth league winners in the U13 and U17 divisions. Our U9 division celebrated a great season with a capstone evening playing ball hockey with Logan Stankoven and getting pictures and autographs. We unfortunately did not get the registration we needed to deliver our outdoor tournament for which I am fully responsible. Our 2025 goals will be to expand our youth to at least four age groups with at least four teams each, deliver an outdoor youth jamboree fundraiser with KidSport, and to send our first youth team(s) to BCBHA Provincials!

Our recreation league doubled in size, with three of these teams being compiled entirely of new players to the sport. Our team was able to divide the teams into divisions to provide all teams meaningful games down the stretch. Our focus in recreation will be to continue to bring new players and teams into the sport while also finding a competitive balance where retiring competitive players may play in the league without negatively impacting the parity and experience of new players and teams. We will explore different ideas and strategies each year to find what works best for players as a whole and benefits both recreation and competitive divisions.

Our competitive league lost two teams but was afforded the opportunity to send five teams to Provincials where all teams were extremely competitive and two teams brought home medals. Congratulations to the Rivershore Kings for winning ‘B’ Provincials and to the North Stars for their Silver in ‘D’ Provincials! The Junkyard Dogs represented KBHA at the CBHA Nationals, making that two consecutive years of a Kamloops team playing for a National Championship. The Rivershore Kings and the North Stars have the option to extend that to three straight years! Seven Kamloops teams have earned Nationals berths since 2019. To address the barriers of entry for our competitive league, our focus shifts to providing our A and B teams with more appropriate opportunities to play similar level opponents from other leagues during the regular season, better preparing them for Provincials, while opening up more opportunities for our D and C teams to play each other during the season AND encouraging new teams to enter D division knowing they don’t have to play elite teams from the jump. We will be forming a committee to brainstorm solutions and gather feedback from our players.

I would like to acknowledge the efforts of a few key people that made this season an overwhelming success. Kyle Blais, Minor Director, for his hours of dedication to make sure all three youth leagues operated smoothly which included him filling in as a coach. Jesse Phillips, for his work on the new website, our social media, youth coaching, and taking charge of making the City Finals an exceptional event and our most well-attended ever. Shawn Chatterley, for his continually improving our partnerships with local businesses and for bringing ball hockey to Westsyde Days. Don Skinner for his hours officiating, scheduling officials, and helping their development. Shawn Pooley, Recreation Manager, for bringing on three new teams worth of players to the sport and training scorekeepers and team managers. Steve Schultz, Competitive Manager, for his continued work on the competitive side where we now have an exceptional talent pool that contends in every single division at Provincials.

Next year, we will be hosting BCBHA Men’s B, C, D Provincials on July 4-6 hopefully at McArthur Island and are in the early stages of preparing to host Men’s A, U23, and Women’s Provincials on July 11-13! We have high hopes to set a new standard for tournament hosts and demonstrate why Kamloops should host these tournaments consistently for the benefit of participants and the sport’s growth. We will be putting significant effort into submitting both a Men’s U23 team and a women's team to these tournaments. We hope to launch registration for all ages/divisions in December of 2024 and expand our marketing through fall and winter to boost registration and awareness.

Our short-term focus now shifts to preparing for our AGM this fall and the creation of a Provincial Organizing Committee and an Adult Programming Committee. We encourage people interested in contributing their skills and ideas to KBHA to consider a nomination for a Director position or a seat on one of our committees. Alternatively, if you are interested in getting involved in other capacities don’t hesitate to reach out as we welcome passionate people with new ideas.

Thanks for a year of growth and learning,

Zach Moffat
President, KBHA