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SportsOakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 201040 By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Its the end of the Ice age in Oakville. The Oakville Hornets Girls Hockey Association (OHGHA) has reclaimed its intermediate AA team that operated for 10 seasons under the Oakville Ice name and the ownership of local businessman Bill Metcalfe. The Oakville Hornets intermediate squad will begin its Provincial Womens Hockey League (PWHL) regular season later this month and play out of Joshuas Creek Arenas. According to both Metcalfe and OHGHA president Mike Turczyniak, the Hornets always had the rights to the regis- tration number that the Ice used to compete in the PWHL. The Hornets permitted Metcalfe the rights 10 years ago to operate the intermediate club, but the Hornets executive decided last winter that they wanted the team back. We wanted the Ice to be part of the Hornets association. Part of that was the branding, said Turczyniak, who took over as OHGHA president last season. There were girls who would watch the (Ice) and wouldnt even know that (many players) were Hornets girls... we were sort of always at arms length. It was time to get that team and the association closer. Turczyniak said he hopes the OHGHAs reclaiming of the inter- mediate team will help inspire the associations younger players. We want girls to know that when you play with the Oakville Hornets, they have the opportunity if theyre great to play at that level, said Turczyniak, noting the PWHL is the female equivalent to the Provincial Junior Hockey League that the Oakville Blades Junior A team competes in. If we can get half the girls or a bunch of girls from Oakville to play, thats won- derful for the town. Turczyniak said the Hornets are not permitted by the PWHL to mandate that all the intermediate teams players be from Oakville, but he hopes that the clubs roster will be largely local. Meanwhile, Metcalfe who says he lost money operat- ing the Ice each season is saddened not to have control of the intermediate club any longer. The way it happened, I was very disappointed, he said. A proper transition would have been to look at a two-to- three year period and have a transition of the colours, the uniforms, the history. Its eight or nine seasons pretty much just thrown away. Community was our number one (objective) and the majority of girls on our team were from the community, from the (Hornets) farm system, the midgets and bantams, he added. Over the past decade, the Ice has helped more than 40 players move on to play university hockey in both Canada and the United States. That number includes Metcalfes daughter Taylor, who landed a scholarship at Syracuse University. Metcalfe said he has a large framed plaque in his living room that lists all the Ice alumni that went on to play NCAA or CIS womens hockey. I have a feather in my cap and I smile every time I know of a success we have had with sending girls on to education and scholarships. Thats the important things that hap- pened. It wasnt about winning a gold medal, he said. If I wanted to... prospect and seek out Grade 11 and 12 players, I could have done that, but I didnt want to. Its not about that. It was about community. Turczyniak said the Hornets will follow the Ices lead in focusing on providing scholarship opportunities for its intermediate players. Its always about development first with the Hornets, he said. This team has already scheduled trips like Bill did in the past, to campuses of universities, and we want to make sure our girls are exposed to that. Of course we want to win, but its our first year really going at it. Were not going to go over our heads. Metcalfe said he operated the Ice as if it were an Ontario Hockey League club, providing facilities and professional coaching and extra ice time and even team psychologists. He said that it takes at least $65,000 to run a PWHL team for an entire season. What it takes to run a quality junior program is very much over and above what a minor hockey organization can do it for, Metcalfe said. You need an appropriate amount of ice time. You need people that know what theyre doing, and you need the environment to succeed... all these things add up. Its not minor hockey. It is (intermediate) girls hockey, which is basically the OHL for girls. Turczyniak said the Hornets will not subsidize the inter- mediate AA club, and that it will run just like any other rep team in the system with players and parents bearing the cost. Our typical rep team budgets are $40,000, he said. This one might be $60 (thousand) or $80 (thousand). Theres no way we want to have to subsidize it. The intermediate Hornets will play their first regular- season game Sept. 24 at home against the Burlington Barracudas, with an 8:30 p.m. start at Joshuas Creek Arenas. Two days later, the club will face Team China at the new Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. A season preview of this years Oakville Hornets interme- diate AA team will appear in an upcoming edition of the Beaver. Hornets take back control of intermediate team END OF AN ERA: The Oakville Ice intermediate AA girls hockey team, pictured celebrating a goal during the 2008-09 Provincial Womens Hockey League season, has been taken over this season by the Oakville Hornets Girls Hockey Association. Oakville Ice program ends after 10-year existence NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER FILE PHOTO We wanted the Ice to be part of the Hornets association... It was time to get that team and the association closer. Oakville Hornets president Mike Turczyniak