Bouchier Group announces three-year, $225,000 agreement with Jr. Oil Barons

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The Jr. Oil Barons, Fort McMurray Minor Hockey’s Elite hockey stream, have come to a $225,000 agreement spanning three years with Bouchier Group. Included is an option for a two-year extension. The funds will support seven A and AA teams, development for players and coaches, and a scholarship program.

Born and raised in Fort McKay, Dave Bouchier, president and co-owner of Bouchier Group, said he never had sponsors when he played hockey.

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“We’re trying to help out the younger kids,” he said. “To us, it’s a big deal because we’ve had three boys that have played this league and we want to continue to see other kids succeed through this too.”

“I hope the kids succeed with scholarships and move on to give themselves a better chance to make the big leagues.”

Jody Seymour, vice president of Elite Hockey, said the partnership has been in the works for a while. With a consistent executive board and the organization continuing to expand, she said now was the right time for the funding deal.

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“I think we could be in partnership with no better business and no better people,” she said. “I know their goals and vision are aligned with ours and that is to help kids go farther and be better and using hockey as the vehicle to do it.”

Since joining the FMMHA four years ago, Seymour has seen registration grow from 800 players to 1,267 players last year. There have also been recent additions, such as the all-female Huskies and the Inclusive Royals hockey teams. Despite this year’s downturn in the economy, COVID-19 and April’s flooding, this year’s registration is around 1,100 players.

With Fort McMurray’s elite teams needing to travel further than many of the other elite hockey teams in Alberta, the organization relies heavily on fundraising and sponsorships. However, because of everything going on this year, they have decided to cut back on initiatives, such as selling raffle tickets.

“This year we as an executive didn’t want to tax the community too much,” she said. “Times are tough and so the Bouchier sponsorship is a perfect time because we’ve had to pull back some of our other sponsorship initiatives.”

Last year’s minor hockey season was cut short when COVID-19 measures forced leagues to stop in March. This meant many playdowns and final tournaments didn’t happen.

Seymour said she’s grateful the teams are able to travel and have a season, even cohorts and quarantines mean less games will be played and only 100 people can attend each game.

“Our mental health and our physical and spiritual well-being is equally as important as the sickness of this pandemic,” she said. “I’m just so grateful that we’re able to do it. Looking forward to when it’s full capacity, but we’ll take what we can get right now.”

“You’ve got to sort of look past all the things we can’t do and look at what we can do,” she said.

lbeamish@postmedia.com