There is a major void in management facing the Okotoks Jr. B Bisons.
After 10 seasons and 513 games at the helm, Jay McFarlane stepped down from his position as the longest-serving general manager of the Heritage Junior Hockey League team.
“It has been on my mind for the last two or three years and it’s difficult to know when to get out when the team has so much success and you have such great people to work with,” McFarlane said. “I’ve been sacrificing a little bit on the personal side when it comes to family life, but well worth it.”
McFarlane made the emotional announcement on April 22 at the team’s year end Awards Banquet having eclipsed long-time GM Murray McCourt in both tenure and wins in the position.
Following in the footsteps of his father and original team president Bill McFarlane, Jay and his brother Trevor laced up the skates for the squad before moving onto coaching and then management.
“His dedication and time spent to this organization was successful and contagious,” McFarlane said of his father. “And inspirational to my involvement.”
In the 31-year history of the organization, at least one member of the McFarlane family has been involved with the club in some capacity for all but six years.
“I lived it firsthand in terms of how much time and dedication it takes to get close to where he was at in the record book,” McFarlane said. “Having surpassed that now, I’m just proud to be a part of the organization, proud to be part of something my dad was one of the pioneers of. It’s made me a better person.”
Management wasn’t in the cards when the Okotokian was putting the puck in the net for his hometown team. A little touch of serendipity and a gentle nudge from former president Jay Pritchard got him along his path.
“I was asked as a 22-year-old to stick around with the team and that was a very difficult position to be put in. To coach players who were just teammates,” he said. “At first I wasn’t sure what kind of role (being a GM) would be or how I would fill it, but it certainly seemed well-suited.
“What I’ve found over time is anyone whose ever been involved with this organization shares the same opinion in how positive or rewarding our experience has been.”
Longevity in the position would not be exclusive to McFarlane. As GM, he kept many of the key cogs in coaching and management intact for several years including a near decade relationship with head coach Mike Hannigan.
“We both had the same goals and sometimes had different philosophies. It was a good ying-and-yang kind of relationship,” Hannigan said. “He could show me the other side of my thinking and I could show him the other side of his. When he was an assistant coach the joke always was ‘I’ll fire you ant then you can fire me.’ It was kind of a big circle, nobody had the upper hand or the power.”
The veteran head coach described the relationship as one of friendship and respect following years playing against each other in the Junior B loop before joining forces in such prolific fashion.
Fittingly, the two were inducted together into the Bisons Wall of Fame in 2009.
The dynamic duo would combine for five league championships in two stints together and hit the ultimate watermark in 2013 by capturing the first provincial title in team history followed by its Keystone Cup bronze medal.
“That was the pinnacle of the work that we did together,” the coach said. “I remember seeing (Jay’s) face and how happy he was to get it. He was around for a lot of years with really good teams that didn’t quite make it. That was relief for everybody.”
The team has not yet announced a replacement for the general manager. McFarlane will remain on as a board member with the organization.
“It feels good to say goodbye, but not actually leave,” McFarlane added. “The team level side you miss the companionship, the relationship with the players, but in particular the team staff, the bus trips. When you win something together, you never forget it.
“That slogan once a Bison, always a Bison is certainly an exclamation point for me.”
