Scout
11-30-2007, 08:58 PM
Billets are unsung heroes of junior hockey
The Southwest Booster
Imagine opening your family’s home two thirds of the year to a teenage hockey player living hundreds and sometime thousands of miles from his family.
As unlikely a scenario as they may seem to some people, each year numerous families in Swift Current open their home to members of the Swift Current Broncos to make their junior hockey experience as comfortable as possible.
Broncos Assistant General Manager Elden Moberg explained the importance of billets in Swift Current.
“I think when you look at junior hockey, obviously you need players and probably a community that can support a team, but I think that thirdly you need some places for your players to go. So I think that billeting ranks right up there as one of the most important factors in having a junior hockey team because of you don’t have places for your players to stay you are not going to have a team.”
The reasons for taking in a Broncos player are numerous, but Joanne Schafer explained why her and her husband have opened their home to 18-year-old defenseman Derek Claffey among other players over the past three seasons
“There are a couple of reasons. One of them is that both Jared and I have played hockey and are fans as well and we know what it is like to play sports. We just want to provide that support in return. The people that live in our homes are actually quite young and we think that they need a nice home to stay in, I mean some of them are leaving home when they are 16 and 17 so I think that it is good to give to give them a good home so they feel like they have a bit of a family away from their own family.”
Lucille Wall explained the decision making process for herself.
“When I was asked over a year ago I was in the position of my husband being ill, he was a resident at the Palliser. He was deteriorating and I was all alone. I was asked if I would do this and I said maybe I should do this. We had always talked about someday doing this and then he became ill and that whole thing got put on hold. When they phoned last August and asked if I would do this I thought about it some and I said yes I would do it.”
Wall explained that it was her decision to welcome import forwards David Stieler and Jan Dalecky, who both hail from the Czech Republic, into her home.
“I had two choices. I could either have one player from the Czech Republic last year or I could have had some of the younger players who would still be high school age. It was my choice to not have high school players. I would rather go the other way. To me it was an interesting challenge to think of having people from another culture here. I have done other cross-cultural things and they are always very rewarding so that certainly weighed into my decision to be part of this.”
Schafer explains that hockey is often a part of the conversation at her home.
“We talk about a lot of other stuff, but depending on how the game went we might talk about the game coming up, or the game that night or an upcoming road trip we usually chat about it. Being that we both played hockey it kind of helps that we know what he is talking about, so we kind of get it.”
Schafer was unsure whether things were better around the house this season with a few more wins than losses.
“I don’t know if they are better, they are not worse though. They take the winning and the losing as it comes. Obviously they are in good spirits when they win, so that helps. Obviously they get rewarded by the community and the fans by giving them praise. They are in good spirits when they win but I don’t think that it makes too much of a difference at home, but it probably depends on the player.”
With Stieler and Dalecky, Wall faces a few more challenges than the other billet families.
“The cultural barrier is not an issue and the language barrier is really not a terribly big issue because they have studied some English in school in the Czech Republic, so they speak a reasonable amount of English when they come. The first two or three weeks when they are here is tougher, because they don’t know all the English words. The first year when they are here they go to English second language classes at the Cypress Hills Regional College so that really helps a lot to improve their English.”
Wall explained that she also plays a role in the boys’ improving English.
“The other thing that we do is I that I am a bit of a slave driver I guess in that I make a point of insisting that they speak English when they are upstairs in the kitchen and the living room so we work at learning the English language. Sign language works really well and Czech-English dictionaries are an asset. They want to learn it and I want to help them so it works. It really has not been a barrier at all.”
19-year-old forward Levi Nelson explains the importance of his billets.
“It is good that there are families here that put themselves out for us. Right when you come here as a 16-year-old into the league you are pretty nervous when you are on your own and away from home. I have had the same billets for three years and it has been great, they are just like family to me.”
Nelson says that with time the players naturally become closer to their billets.
“As the years go on each year gets more and more comfortable and you become closer and they are like a second family.”
Moberg explained that they are always looking for more billets.
“At times they are hard to find because it is a huge commitment. They are opening up their doors to a stranger in a lot of cases and bringing them in to be part of their family. In some cases for a lot of people that is not something that they would be willing to do. In Swift Current we have been fairly lucky in that we have had some excellent billets over the years and some that have been long term people who have been with us for quite a while but we are always looking because every year you have a couple that drop off for various reason and you are always needing some more. They can be tricky to find because not just anyone can do it. You want to have a good home for players. Here we are lucky we do have good homes for players but sometimes it doesn’t work out and you have to keep an open mind looking for others.”
Despite the fact that billets are usually needed, Moberg explained that not just anyone can take in a player.
“Our billet coordinator Linda Thompson usually goes out and looks at the home and in a lot of cases do some personal checks on people and try and get some information on why they are doing this and make sure that they are in for the right reasons. Obviously we do some other checks to make sure they are good citizens as well. If they are good people with a good home then usually they are somebody we would look at.”
Billets are compensated for their expenses.
“We pay them a certain amount per month, if they have two players they obviously get double,” says Moberg. “In most cases it probably doesn’t take care of what they deserve to get paid for it. In a lot of cases it is more of a fee to help them put some food on the table and different things like that but if you included the fact that they have room with it is not a huge amount.”
Money is not why people take in the players.
“The people that do it do it because they really do care about the players and care about having someone in their home to take care of who is a young guy that needs a situation like that. They do get paid, everyone around the league is around the same amount. You would like to spend a lot more if you could but obviously it is a big price tag for us too but it is one that we are more than willing to and happy to pay because it is very important to our operation.”
The Southwest Booster
Imagine opening your family’s home two thirds of the year to a teenage hockey player living hundreds and sometime thousands of miles from his family.
As unlikely a scenario as they may seem to some people, each year numerous families in Swift Current open their home to members of the Swift Current Broncos to make their junior hockey experience as comfortable as possible.
Broncos Assistant General Manager Elden Moberg explained the importance of billets in Swift Current.
“I think when you look at junior hockey, obviously you need players and probably a community that can support a team, but I think that thirdly you need some places for your players to go. So I think that billeting ranks right up there as one of the most important factors in having a junior hockey team because of you don’t have places for your players to stay you are not going to have a team.”
The reasons for taking in a Broncos player are numerous, but Joanne Schafer explained why her and her husband have opened their home to 18-year-old defenseman Derek Claffey among other players over the past three seasons
“There are a couple of reasons. One of them is that both Jared and I have played hockey and are fans as well and we know what it is like to play sports. We just want to provide that support in return. The people that live in our homes are actually quite young and we think that they need a nice home to stay in, I mean some of them are leaving home when they are 16 and 17 so I think that it is good to give to give them a good home so they feel like they have a bit of a family away from their own family.”
Lucille Wall explained the decision making process for herself.
“When I was asked over a year ago I was in the position of my husband being ill, he was a resident at the Palliser. He was deteriorating and I was all alone. I was asked if I would do this and I said maybe I should do this. We had always talked about someday doing this and then he became ill and that whole thing got put on hold. When they phoned last August and asked if I would do this I thought about it some and I said yes I would do it.”
Wall explained that it was her decision to welcome import forwards David Stieler and Jan Dalecky, who both hail from the Czech Republic, into her home.
“I had two choices. I could either have one player from the Czech Republic last year or I could have had some of the younger players who would still be high school age. It was my choice to not have high school players. I would rather go the other way. To me it was an interesting challenge to think of having people from another culture here. I have done other cross-cultural things and they are always very rewarding so that certainly weighed into my decision to be part of this.”
Schafer explains that hockey is often a part of the conversation at her home.
“We talk about a lot of other stuff, but depending on how the game went we might talk about the game coming up, or the game that night or an upcoming road trip we usually chat about it. Being that we both played hockey it kind of helps that we know what he is talking about, so we kind of get it.”
Schafer was unsure whether things were better around the house this season with a few more wins than losses.
“I don’t know if they are better, they are not worse though. They take the winning and the losing as it comes. Obviously they are in good spirits when they win, so that helps. Obviously they get rewarded by the community and the fans by giving them praise. They are in good spirits when they win but I don’t think that it makes too much of a difference at home, but it probably depends on the player.”
With Stieler and Dalecky, Wall faces a few more challenges than the other billet families.
“The cultural barrier is not an issue and the language barrier is really not a terribly big issue because they have studied some English in school in the Czech Republic, so they speak a reasonable amount of English when they come. The first two or three weeks when they are here is tougher, because they don’t know all the English words. The first year when they are here they go to English second language classes at the Cypress Hills Regional College so that really helps a lot to improve their English.”
Wall explained that she also plays a role in the boys’ improving English.
“The other thing that we do is I that I am a bit of a slave driver I guess in that I make a point of insisting that they speak English when they are upstairs in the kitchen and the living room so we work at learning the English language. Sign language works really well and Czech-English dictionaries are an asset. They want to learn it and I want to help them so it works. It really has not been a barrier at all.”
19-year-old forward Levi Nelson explains the importance of his billets.
“It is good that there are families here that put themselves out for us. Right when you come here as a 16-year-old into the league you are pretty nervous when you are on your own and away from home. I have had the same billets for three years and it has been great, they are just like family to me.”
Nelson says that with time the players naturally become closer to their billets.
“As the years go on each year gets more and more comfortable and you become closer and they are like a second family.”
Moberg explained that they are always looking for more billets.
“At times they are hard to find because it is a huge commitment. They are opening up their doors to a stranger in a lot of cases and bringing them in to be part of their family. In some cases for a lot of people that is not something that they would be willing to do. In Swift Current we have been fairly lucky in that we have had some excellent billets over the years and some that have been long term people who have been with us for quite a while but we are always looking because every year you have a couple that drop off for various reason and you are always needing some more. They can be tricky to find because not just anyone can do it. You want to have a good home for players. Here we are lucky we do have good homes for players but sometimes it doesn’t work out and you have to keep an open mind looking for others.”
Despite the fact that billets are usually needed, Moberg explained that not just anyone can take in a player.
“Our billet coordinator Linda Thompson usually goes out and looks at the home and in a lot of cases do some personal checks on people and try and get some information on why they are doing this and make sure that they are in for the right reasons. Obviously we do some other checks to make sure they are good citizens as well. If they are good people with a good home then usually they are somebody we would look at.”
Billets are compensated for their expenses.
“We pay them a certain amount per month, if they have two players they obviously get double,” says Moberg. “In most cases it probably doesn’t take care of what they deserve to get paid for it. In a lot of cases it is more of a fee to help them put some food on the table and different things like that but if you included the fact that they have room with it is not a huge amount.”
Money is not why people take in the players.
“The people that do it do it because they really do care about the players and care about having someone in their home to take care of who is a young guy that needs a situation like that. They do get paid, everyone around the league is around the same amount. You would like to spend a lot more if you could but obviously it is a big price tag for us too but it is one that we are more than willing to and happy to pay because it is very important to our operation.”