When Sandy Michie takes his usual seat in the stands at the Coquitlam Express games, he does so with a special appreciation for what goes into running a junior hockey club.
The 83-year-old, who will turn 84 on Friday, is one of the original founders of the Coquitlam Comets and is credited with bringing Junior A hockey to the Tri-Cities in the late 1960s until the early 1980s.
With his grandson Mathew Michie in the Express lineup, Sandy is a familiar face at the rink. But he said these days he is enjoying his role as a spectator rather than a manager.
“It takes a lot of people to make a hockey team successful,” he told The Tri-City News. “You can’t just say ‘I did it.’ It is more of a community effort.”
This Friday, the Express will honour the Comets and Sandy’s efforts to bring Junior A hockey to the Tri-Cities by wearing the Comets crest during a Heritage Night game against Salmon Arm. (Puck drop is at 7 p.m.)
Sandy took on the Comets in 1965 as the club plowed their way through the rough and tumble junior B schedule.
But he said he wanted to give the players an opportunity to take their game to the next level without having to move to the Okanagan, where Junior A was flourishing.
He and Fred Page, the famed junior hockey executive and Hockey Hall of Famer who the BCHL saw fit to name their top prize after, the Fred Page Cup, successfully lobbied the Canadian Hockey Association for a team. While being a Junior A franchise helped the club attract better talent, Sandy said it was important to produce solid citizens as well as good hockey players, a philosophy currently adopted by the Express.
“We developed young boys and we had the opportunity to make them men,” he recalls. “We have doctors, lawyers, teachers, firemen, Mounties, all through the Comets community. If you look at all these guys, they are all from various walks of life.”
Sandy grew up in Saskatoon and once had a tryout with the Detroit Red Wings. He coached minor hockey for a few years before taking on his role with the Comets. He has seen a lot change in junior hockey over the years and said he is impressed with some of the players coming up the ranks.
“The game has gotten faster,” he said. “The equipment is better. The kids are in better condition… The intenstiy we had on the ice was the same, or better, but the conditioning was a lot different. These kids today are in good shape.”
HISTORIC NIGHT
The Coquitlam Express will host Heritage Night on Friday, Feb. 12 at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex during a game against Salmon Arm. The Express will be honoring the junior A Coquitlam Comets, a club that played at the Arena in the 1960s and 1970s. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. For more information go to www.coquitlamexpress.ca.
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