OLIVER PAIPOONGE -- Matt Valley calls it the shoe box. Others know it as the one-time stomping ground of the brothers Staal.
Future generations will know it as the home of the Superior International Junior Hockey League's Kam River Fighting Walleye. The team on Thursday made it official, unveiling the Norwest Arena as their new home.
The Fighting Walleye are the first SIJHL club to play out of the rural rink, located minutes up the hill from the Stanley Hotel.
"It's like chill city," said first-year coach Matt Valley. "I grew up playing here and how many guys have walked through those doors that are fantastic hockey players? To be able to add to that, hopefully, is something I'll hold near and dear to my heart. It's coming home. It's about family, it's about community and that's how we coach as a coaching staff -- it's all about culture, it's all about community."
Valley, a former player in the SIJHL, said there are plenty of advantages playing in an older rink that he's confident the Fighting Walleye can make work in their favour when visitors arrive.
"I've been in a men's league here for a while now and obviously I grew up here. We call it a shoebox. It's tight quarters. There are some hometown bounces here for sure, and we're going to play to those. We're going to be a hard-skating, physical team hopefully that competes for every bounce. That's the way our coaching staff wanted to approach it anyway," Valley said.
"Being in this rink is advantageous to the way we coach and I think this small arena, jam-packed with 300, 500, 600 people is going to feel like maybe closer to 5,000."
Oliver Paipoonge Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis was on hand for Thursday's windy unveiling, helping team officials rip the brown-paper covering of the Fighting Walleye logo that now adorns the wall adjacent to the rink's entrance.
She called it an exciting day for her community, with a junior A hockey team to call their own.
I think it's terrific," said Kloosterhuis, adding the on-again, off-again negotiation took about a year to complete.
"I live just down the road and I can't wait to see the games start."
When that will be remains up in the air. The league has tentatively set Nov. 14 as their hoped-for start date, but with two teams south of the still-closed Canada/United States border, and rules in place at the moment only allowing 50-player league bubbles, as it stands the 2020-21 campaign would not be able to start.
Commissioner Darrin Nicholas says it's a waiting game, though teams are expected to begin holding tryouts as early as Sept. 14.
Nicholas, whose son Evan won a city bantam AA championship at the Norwest Arena in 2014, said he's excited to see a team set up shop at the rink, which did host the Thunder Bay North Stars occasionally in the past.
"I think it's a great building. I thought it was a great choice by their organization and congrats to the community for working with them. As a coach I've had an opportunity to participate in quite a few provincial, regional and national championships and the ones that are the most memorable and most enjoyable and probably the most successful are probably the ones that are in the smaller centres," Nicholas said. "This will be a big deal for Oliver Paipoonge."
