The pull of being a linchpin in one of the most successful Jr. B clubs around is a strong one.
Team president Mike Parsons was recognized for 28 years of service to the Okotoks Jr. B Bisons at the club’s awards banquet weeks after announcing he would be stepping away from the club.
Not so fast.
“Three years ago I said I was leaving and I couldn’t sleep at night and a week later I said ‘I screwed up, what was I thinking?’” Parsons said. “Earlier on this year I said to Jay (vice-president Jay McFarlane) I think it’s time. I’m trying to spend more time in Mexico in the winter, my grandkids are very talented hockey players and I want to have an opportunity to watch them more, maybe help out at that level.
“I was sleeping at night then the last couple weeks I haven’t been again.”
Parsons, the club’s president for the past three years and a member of the organization dating back to its days as the Okotoks 85ers in the late 1980s, was treated to a standing ovation at the April 21 banquet and presented with a jersey with the number 28 reflecting the number of years of service.
“You surround yourself with successful people. That’s what Mike does all the time, he’s attracted people throughout the years to the board which is part of the reason why the organization has been so great,” said McFarlane. “The amount of hours, the effort, the passion, he may never walk away from the organization and we’re fine with that. I just wanted to make sure this season, because life is unexpected, that he was recognized.
“He’s by far the longest serving member in our hockey franchise history,” McFarlane added. “I’m not sure who would be the next closest in terms of time with the organization, but it’s fairly untouchable.”
Being at the rink and knowing that you’re part of what the young men are doing is what’s brought the president back to the club for four decades.
“When I started out we could run this team on about twenty thousand a year. When we do provincials or possibly further we’re at 200 thousand plus. It’s the thrill, the challenge of raising that money,” Parsons said. “It’s seeing these young men have a place to play junior hockey in Okotoks, knowing that 70 to 80 per cent of our players is Okotoks and area. There is no other team in the league that has as many home-based players.
“If we weren’t here, where would they be? That’s the way I think.”
Fundraising, he admits, has been a struggle at times with regards to keeping the team going.
“We’re consistently one of the best junior hockey clubs from Thunder Bay to Victoria,” he said. “We’ve been rated in the top four for numerous years. There is lots of reasons, talent, the coaching staff, player recruitment, the board does what they can. We give these guys a low cost place to play, we bus them to the games, feed them, do a lot of equipment.
“It’s just a challenge every year I look forward to.”
Parsons, who will make the stay or go decision by June, noted the club is reaching out for more help on the board of directors due to some expected turnover in the off-season.
“They say Once a Bison, Always a Bison,” Parsons said. “We’ve had a lot of players come through that I can still bump into somewhere and say hi. They’re just part of the family, a lot of the parents same way. I’ve seen some great people on the board and we could use some more of you on the board as well.
“Twenty eight years. My son didn’t play, maybe my grandson will or my granddaughter,” Parsons told the banquet crowd. “It has been 28 years of the best years of my life being at the rink a lot, seeing you guys.”
Particularly in 2013.
After several near misses Okotoks claimed its elusive provincial championship in Wainwright before earning a bronze at the Keystone Cup. The only people celebrating more than the players were the team staff and board members including Parsons and former president Jay Pritchard.
“I think a lot about what these NHL guys say, play hard, you never know when you get a chance to play in the playoffs, when you get a chance to win a Stanley Cup,” Parsons said. “We won our Stanley Cup then we went on to what we believed was the worlds and we won a bronze and we weren’t expected to do anything.
“We had two or three minutes that went bad or we would be the Western Canadian champions. That was my Stanley Cup and I just hope we have another shot at it and I hope I’m there.”
Moving on is hard to do.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking of for a long, but something I don’t want to do,” he added. “I love the organization, it’s been good to me, it has been my life.”
