Royal BobCats

Terrible I know.  It’s the best I could come up with.  I was going to go with “Lloydminster Bobcats Awarded RBC Cup”, but I didn’t want to be original.

Well if you’re a hockey fan, and you live in the Lloydminster area, things haven’t exactly sucked lately.  The reputation this city is getting for hosting these big events is nothing short of remarkable.  “Lloyd sucks, this town is such a hole”….you aren’t hearing a lot from “that guy” these days are you?

I had heard the team and city was going to be awarded the event roughly 3 weeks ago, but held off saying anything about it on twitter until last week.  And even then I didn’t exactly come out defiantly stating “it is coming!!!” despite knowing it was.  I would like to break a story if I can, but I also don’t want to be the guy who does anything to ruin something like hosting an event like the RBC Cup!

I can’t help but think of how cool of a Jr.A career might it be for a kid like Pat Geary, or Troy Rapuano, or River Beattie, or Mitch Brennan or so many of these kids who played on Hockey Day in Canada and now could play for the host team in the RBC Cup?!  That would be a run likely never duplicated.  Now, who knows what might happen as far as trades or making jumps to the next level, etc.  But right now it has to be exciting for the guys who have at least 2 years left!

So now the preparation will begin, and could this organization ask for better people to set the table than Gary Van Hereweghe and the returning Gord Thibodeau?  Up until last season Jr.A hockey fans in this town had always been clamouring for the days of Thibodeau coaching the team.  His squads in 98-99 and 99-2000 had been the most successful Jr.A teams in town until Van Hereweghe showed up last season and took a team that was expected to do nothing all the way to game 7 of the North semi-final against the Thibodeau coached Fort Mac Oil Barons.

Now a year later the Bobcats have both in the fold, and a team that is setup to do some damage in the next few seasons.  And I really think Thibodeau and Van Hereweghe will work well together.  Both like their teams playing very disciplined and structured games.  Detail oriented guys and it really was a chess match between the two in the North semi-final this past season.  They can both recruit as well as anyone in the AJHL, so with the built in advantage of hosting the RBC in 2016 you can bet that the Bobcats will be a pretty talented team the next few seasons.  A pretty crazy turnaround from the start of last season, and REALLY crazy from the end of the 2012 season when it looked like they were headed to Whitecourt!

Guaranteed the city of Lloydminster will knock it out of the park with this event like they do all the others.  Expectations will be high, because this town has set the bar pretty high!  As someone who has lived here most of his life, you constantly hear about the negatives.  Well we must be doing SOMETHING right, because big events keep coming and people from other parts of the country keep raving about the job we do putting them on.  Well, I use the term “we” loosely.  My sister is usually working her ass off helping put events like this on, I just look to leach off the credit she gets and then write about it all afterwards.  Damn, said that out loud…

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