Disappointment reigns for Dynamiter coach

By Jeff Bromley
For those close to the Kimberley Dynamiter organization, the announcement that the club would cease operations only hours before the opening faceoff of game two of their AWHL quarter-final playoff against the Bismarck Bobcats, came with all the surprise of terminally ill patient. You know that the prognosis isn’t good, but still remain upbeat and optimistic that patient can make the miraculous recovery and live a normal life. The Kimberley Dynamiters were in such a position all season long, struggling to cover expenses, wondering if at the end of the day there would still be hockey in the Bavarian City. There were whispers and innuendo of the team’s forecasted demise, but as in any small town – they were written off as only rumors and you would hope that the club would survive to see another game.

For Nitro’s Head Coach Nels Ecklund, who’s seen more than his fair share of the Dynamiter’s off-ice troubles this past season including covering the teams expenses while on the road on different occasions and is still awaiting his last paycheck, the biggest disappointment is not for himself but for the club’s hockey players who worked hard all season long to get to the AWHL playoffs only to have the rug pulled from under them. “It’s still something that is very difficult to accept,” said Ecklund. “I still look at the fact where the biggest people who were affected in it all were the 24 players who put so much effort into their season and were looking forward to their playoff run and having that opportunity for a championship taken away is really difficult for me.” Along with the abrupt folding of the Dynamiters comes many questions. Why couldn’t this long standing tradition of hockey in the South Eastern British Columbia mining city not generate enough revenue in order for its Junior ‘A’ hockey club to survive? Coach Ecklund says it was a number of factors. “It’s a combination of a few different things. One of them being expenses in this league (AWHL) are considerably higher than what they used to be in the Rocky Mountain League and with that being the case, our revenues haven’t increased enough in order to offset our expenses,” said Ecklund. “It seemed that everyday we were losing more money and it had to come to an end eventually and one of the reasons that former owner Jim Stuart didn’t want to be involved this year was because of the amount of money he lost last year and it didn’t seem to be a feasible operation.” There is a little bitterness in Ecklund’s tone when the discussion turns to the timing of the decision to terminate the Nitros season especially with the revelation that the Dynamiters Booster society had come forward with assurances of enough money to make sure the club had made it through the playoffs, but the former Cranbrook Colt Captain says that hindsight is always twenty-twenty. “In hindsight you could look at all the different ways to make ends meet and that was definitely one of them. I think that the AWHL could’ve handled matters a lot differently in the fact they could’ve put their foot down a little earlier in our season and it would have given us more time to put a contingency plan into place.”

The fact remains though, that the long tradition of hockey, be it Senior or Junior is now gone in Kimberley and what the future holds is, at least for now, uncertain. Ecklund admits that there are still some possibilities for junior hockey in Kimberley other than that of the AWHL. “Looking at it a couple of different ways, the Alberta Junior would definitely be the best option at this point but that would be left up to the Alberta Junior executive. The second option would be the Junior ‘B’ option which, cost wise, would be good for Kimberley but you would lose a caliber of hockey, which would be unfortunate.

“The positive side is that Kimberley would still have a competitive hockey team people could come out and support and get some entertainment out of.” The demise of the Dynamiters leaves the Fernie Ghostriders as the only Canadian entry into the AWHL. The close proximity of the two cities enabled the two to have at least one close road opponent in the vast expanse that is the AWHL. Ecklund acknowledges that it is going to be difficult for the Ghostriders to survive without the Nitros. “I think that Fernie could survive with some help from the AWHL and possibly from the remaining teams in the United States. “With the expansion of the league to Missoula and Helena coming back in it would help Fernie’s situation but there’s no doubt that losing Kimberley would affect them greatly.”

Ecklund’s future in the profession of coaching is at the moment, on hold. A B.C. Forestry Firefighter by trade, Ecklund is weighing his options and is seeing what opportunities might become available after the end of hockey season. “The firefighting is still an option for my summertime work,” said Ecklund. “Ultimately I would like to stay in coaching year round but if the opportunity isn’t there for me I’m going to have to obviously look out for my number one priority which would be my family and making sure that there’s food on the table. Whatever the case may be, I definitely have to look out for them first.”