Randy Bedard is in his fifth year as owner of the Osoyoos Coyotes Junior B hockey team. He looks for creative ways to run the team financially, relying on local sponsors and others in the community. (Richard McGuire photo)
Junior hockey teams have come and gone in Osoyoos over the years, but Randy Bedard wants the Coyotes to be the hockey team that stays.
“There have been six attempts at junior hockey in Osoyoos since 1996,” Coyotes owner Bedard told a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Osoyoos. “We want to prove longevity and give confidence that this organization will be around for years to come.”
In recent decades, Osoyoos junior hockey teams have gone by such names as the Rebels, the Heat and the Storm. Those teams either folded or moved to other markets.
The Coyotes are now in their fifth year and are enjoying a successful season, currently holding the top spot in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL).
As team owner, Bedard has been the business face of the Coyotes while Ken Law, as head coach and general manager, has been in charge of what happens on the ice.
“It’s two separate worlds,” said Bedard, adding the two keep the lines of communications open, but as owner, he doesn’t try to micromanage the organization.
This past Halloween, Bedard marked the fifth anniversary of the day he returned to Osoyoos after an eight-year absence to start up the Coyotes.
That was Oct. 31, 2009, but the new team didn’t actually hit the ice until the 2010-11 season.
In their first four years, the Coyotes have made the conference final three times and captured the league championship once.
It’s one thing to start a team, but it’s another thing to keep it financially viable. Bedard is the first to admit there’s not much money in junior hockey, but he said it’s the passion that drives him.
What’s the difference between a successful team and one that doesn’t last?
“I think just being very hands-on and being politely persistent,” said Bedard. “It’s finding those corporate partners. Without the corporate partners, you wouldn’t exist. We’ve got the fan base, which is really nice, but I will always say that the businesses are the lifeblood.”
The team generates revenue from businesses by selling ads on the boards, on walls and in programs. There’s hardly a bare space of wall at the Sun Bowl Arena.
Bedard has turned to other innovative ideas to bring in revenue like 50-50 draws, gum machines, pop machines, concession, skate sharpening and intermission games like Chuck-a-duck, where spectators try to win a jackpot by throwing little plastic ducks at a vase of water on the rink.
Those little ducks, and some of the other Coyote paraphernalia, are a legacy of the eight years Bedard spent away from Osoyoos.
They were given to him as payment for work he did for a team in Williams Lake when that team couldn’t come up with the cash he was owed.
Listening to Bedard as he announces contests during game intermissions, it’s obvious that he has a voice made for radio.
Bedard, 52, who grew up on the west side of Toronto, said he’s worked in radio on and off since the age of 19. While he has no wish to return to radio full time, he still keeps his hand in radio by recording programming for CIRO, the Destination Osoyoos radio station.
Bedard first came to Osoyoos in 1993 to work in radio and did play-by-play broadcasts of the Osoyoos Heat junior hockey team for a brief period. He stayed in the community until 2001.
“It’s funny, because when I left here, I spent almost eight years figuring out how I could get back,” he said.
He worked in marketing and did play-by-play for several teams in such places as Helena, Montana, Williams Lake, B.C., Chetwynd, B.C., Dawson Creek, B.C. and Slave Lake, Alberta.
Finally, he ended up working in marketing for the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League.
Bedard and two other men decided in 2008 – initially over beers – that Osoyoos would be a good location to start a new team.
They made a presentation to the KIJHL to gain acceptance and then had to be sanctioned by BC Hockey. The third step involved reaching a lease agreement with the Town of Osoyoos to use the Sun Bowl Arena. After that, it was a case of seeking sponsorships and pitching the idea to the community.
Within two years of starting, Bedard bought out his two partners.
“It just made a lot of sense because I was the only one living in the market,” said Bedard. “I felt like most things were falling on my lap anyway.”
Right from the start, Law was hired on as head coach. He had previously been an assistant coach with the Vees in Penticton.
Law’s ability to recruit talent and then get players to produce on the ice has been a key to the team’s success, Bedard said.
Law recruits through prospect camps and other events in places ranging from Las Vegas to Denver to Vancouver. With the Coyotes’ reputation, the team also gets calls from aspiring players and often Law will invite the best prospects out to a practice.
“He’s always looking to upgrade,” said Bedard. “That’s not to say you don’t have a loyalty for the players that you have as well, but nobody is going to put it into neutral or cruise here. You’re going to work hard all the time and you’re going to produce, or we will find another place for you to play. That’s just the nature of it and as you go further, it gets more vicious, so get used to it now.”
Players are also expected to play a positive role off the ice. This means they spend time volunteering at Mariposa Gardens and at various community events.
“They don’t complain,” Bedard said. “This is part of the organization. We often get feedback saying they’re a really nice group of young men and I say we expect that and don’t want to hear otherwise. We want to make sure that they are respectful and are treating the community very well.”
As Bedard told the Rotarians, the hockey team brings economic spinoffs to Osoyoos.
About 20 players are billeted at local homes and they spend money in the community. The families are largely paid in vouchers from local grocery stores.
The players are here during shoulder season and often visiting teams or players’ parents stay at local hotels and motels.
Bedard acknowledges he could probably take the Coyotes to a different market and do better financially, but he says he has no wish to.
“This community has been amazing to me for eight years and then for the last five years,” he said. “My heart is here. I have loyalty because the community has been loyal to me. I’m not going anywhere and I have a number of years left in this with me. If I ever chose to sell, I would put a stipulation that you have to keep the franchise here.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Randy Bedard, owner of the Osoyoos Coyotes, fires a t-shirt to a lucky winner in the audience during the first intermission at a recent Saturday night hockey game. (Richard McGuire photo)
