By now the Posse story this season is relatively well known… previous long term coach leaves, new board, new coach—new season—before you know it, Happy New Year!
Going into the Christmas break, on ice the Posse is coming back after having their season best road trip, a positive 5-2 record in December and a solid 4-1 in the last 5 games. The light in the tunnel ahead actually looks like taillights rather than a train coming head on.
Off ice the quest to find the Posse’s role in the community continues. Some games the atmosphere is definitely on the right track – the noon game with the elementary schools was enough to make the board reconsider thoughts of discontinuing the annual treat. However, the feeling needs to be generated for every game in order to justify the luxury of junior hockey in such a small community. Impossible? Absolutely no way. But to be clear one must work hard to afford luxuries, and small town hockey is no different.
To that end the Posse put to rest two issues that remained high on the priority list of the new board.
Dale Hladun coached here for seven seasons, well over half of the Posse’s eleven seasons in Princeton. Much of our community has a Duner story, good or bad. I for one have many more of the good. It has certainly not been a secret that Mr Hladun left Princeton with disputes over his contract. Prior to Christmas the organization and Duner officially put to rest all differences and the Posse wishes him well with both his current ( Fernie Ghostriders ) and future coaching challenges.
The current board endorsed early a position that operation of a junior hockey club would no longer include operating a bus charter business as primary source of revenue. Five months later, after much attention to detail by at least one board member, and again right before Christmas, the Posse sold its second, and older of the two buses. Patience to wait for a fair offer returned a value near the highest end of pre-sale estimated value.
One-by-one the organization is knocking down some of the major off-ice hurdles identified by community volunteers operating as the Posse board. Another one that as of yet is an untold success story, is that of the commitment to success displayed by the 2014 coaching staff. Look for more on this topic later. The Posse organization wishes a Happy New Year to the town and area around Princeton, to all fans, volunteers, sponsors, billet families, players and anyone else we have missed.
And here’s to supporting our devoted coaching staff and players as they start the relentless hunt of that last playoff spot.
Home games in January are Tuesday Jan.7, Tuesday, Jan. 21 and Saturday, Jan. 25. All games start at 7 p.m.