ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS
A6 | SPORTS | THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021
Fort St. John Huskies reflect on lost season Dillon Giancola sports@ahnfsj.ca Another hockey season, another year the Fort St. John Huskies won’t have a chance to defend their 201819 NWJHL championship. The 202021 regular season and playoffs were officially cancelled on February 8, following meetings between league officials and Hockey Alberta. “During this meeting, the Leagues and Hockey Alberta unanimously decided to conclude all regular season league play for the remainder of the 2020-21 season,” said the NWJHL in a statement. “The NWJHL including all six teams, though saddened by this news, remains focused and will wait for the AHS restrictions to be lifted in order to get back to on-ice development and exhibition games to put a proper end to a dismal season.” For Huskies captain Aiden Tegart, who’s in his fifth and final year with the team, the season didn’t end like he and his teammates had hoped. “We kept hearing good news was coming, and kept hoping for it, but it never really came,” Tegart said. “It was hard the way last season ended, with the way we were playing, and we hoped we would get a chance to compete this year but it didn’t work out.” Practice makes perfect Still, the ever positive Huskies players and coaching staff aren’t viewing this as a wasted season. While the team only played five regular season games this year, they skated throughout the season, practicing at least twice a week, and doing things for the community as a team when able. In fact, the Huskies are still practicing, and plan to do so into March. “Practice has been pretty good, though we’re missing showcase part, where they can take what they learn in practice and show it in games. The group has been really good, they’ve been competitive every practice, and we’ve had good attendance all
DILLON GIANCOLA PHOTOS
Aiden Tegart (above) and Dean Whitcomb (below) are two of the four Huskies aging out of junior after this season. Here they are seen in one of the few regular season games the Huskies actually played this season, back in November, 2021,.
year,” said Huskies Head Coach Todd Alexander. Tegart said the year has consisted more of indivudual skill-building, and that though it’s not the same as in-game experience, the team made do. “I feel like a lot of guys took a good step forward. We made the most of it, and nobody was too bummed about not being able to play,” he said. Ideally, Tegart would have liked to play some home games with the C on his jersey this year, but took pride in being a leader all the same. “I still got to mentor the young guys, I have some experience to share, and having them want to listen to me and being named the captain did help my confidence too. It doesn’t
sound like much but it makes a difference,” Tegart said. Next season As for the Huskies as a team, Tegart thinks it’s in great shape. “I think the Huskies are in really good hands. The past few years, the culture Todd has been able to create, and the amount of winning that’s happened, it makes guys want to come here, and guys who are from Fort St. John want to stay,” Tegart said. The Huskies had 12 rostered players listed as rookies this year, out of 27. Combine that with next year’s rookies, and more than half of the
Huskies players on the 2021-22 team could have no or minimal experience when it comes to playing meaningful hockey at the junior level. “That’s really interesting, and there will be a lot of teaching going on next year. There is a lot of extra speed and weight that gets added to the junior level, and that’s two age groups of players who won’t have experienced that,” said Alexander. “But it will be great to play again next year if we’re able to. Even this year, just seeing the five games we got to play in November, our guys were so happy and it’s amazing to see how much their spirits can be lifted by one hockey game.”
Tegart says goodbye to Huskies Dillon Giancola sports@ahnfsj.ca Aiden Tegart is one of four Huskies players who are in their 21-year-old group right now, and will age out of junior hockey after this season. Joel Bourgeois (four seasons), Cooper Wilms (three), and Dean Whitcomb (three) are in their final year with the team as well. This is Tegart’s fifth year with the Huskies, and, along with Whitcomb, is currently entertaining offers and scholarships to play college hockey next season. “It’s always been a dream for me to play college hockey. Now that it’s in my reach, it’s really fulfilling,” Tegart said. He’s very excited about the possibilities that would come with him moving away, possibly to another country, to play hockey. “I just want to experience whatever new things I can, through academics, through hockey, and being able to experience a new town. Fort St. John is great but small, and having a new place to go and meet people and make connections is
something I’m really excited about.” Alexander has enjoyed working with Tegart the past five years, and is proud of the man he’s become. “He’s come a long ways, and to watch him grow from a 17-year-old into a 21-year-old man has been an incredible experience. He’s shown an incredible drive to work on his game, and was been a great teammate to anyone who’s been a part of this program,” Alexander said. “He likes to take people under his wing, especially the underdog. That’s who he is and the type of personality on our hockey club. He’s a testament to what our program is,” said Alexander. Though Tegart wishes it ended differently, he’s very grateful for his time with the team. “It’s an experience I wouldn’t change for the world, the relationships I’ve made will be once I have for live, and the skills I’ve learned both on and off the ice have contributed to who I am today. These five years polished me in every aspect of my life, and they’ve helped give me a voice to be who I want to be.”
ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS
THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021 | OP-ED | A11
Part 6 in a series
Managing our urban, not so wild life
H
ardly a day goes by without another news story about a predator trying to make its living in an urban environment: ‘Cougar Snatches Pug’; ‘Lynx Attacks Dog’; ‘Wolf Kills Dog’; ‘Aggressive Coyote in Stanley Park nips Jogger’s Pants’. In fairness, it is not just predators. In Fort St John, it was ‘Conservation Officers Euthanize Moose Shot by Pellet Gun’. In Kelowna, it was ‘Woman Angry as Deer Impaled on Fence’. These headlines are all from the past month. Given we are in the middle of winter, headlines about the black and grizzly bears wreaking havoc with someone’s home, rabbits eating university tulips, mother deer stomping dogs, or raccoons raiding gardens are all put on hold until the weather warms up and they return to the fray. Despite the variety of locations and species, all these stories have one thing in common — stories about wild animals living in urban environments that usually do not end well, at least for the critters involved. The end of March will be the one-year anniversary of the death one of B.C.’s most famous predators that used to live next to an urban environment – The Lone Wolf of Discovery Island. For those who do not remember the story, this wolf lived on a small island near Victoria, which was mostly park. It lived there for almost eight years, finding enough to eat and became a media darling. Last year, for reasons unknown, it left the safety of its island and moved into the residential neighborhoods of Victoria to try living on cats, dogs, deer or whatever else it could catch and consume. Leaving the conservation officers no choice, it was captured, moved out of town, and released. Lonely and lost, and likely pursued by other wolves for invading their territory, it wandered
EVAN SAUGSTAD around the island until coming face-to-face with a person with a gun and was shot. And then the howling started, not from this wolf’s long-ago-lost pack, but from all those who loved this wolf to its death. Leading the charge was the now infamous photographer who hounded this lonely wolf for years, writing romantic novels about what the wolf’s life could have been, snapping thousands of pictures of its every move, until the day arrived that this lost wolf of Discovery Island no longer had any fear or respect for humans. In fairness to our media, I did read one story about how this wolf was loved to death, but for many of the rest their stories where about how humans invaded this wolf’s life, a ruthless hunter killed it, uncaring COs facilitated, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera. So why is this? Why such a disconnect about the reality of wild animals trying to live in urban environments? Story after story blame human encroachment as the reason; that we have stolen their place to live and now they return to reclaim what was once rightfully theirs. Wrong. This story is only correct for the first generations after us humans alter their environments. Once we have made an area uninhabitable for wildlife, it became a place where they no longer call home. Take Coquitlum as an example. City has been there a long time. Habitat reserved for wildlife disappeared years ago, but now cougars and bears are showing up, not to reclaim it as theirs, but to find something to eat. Most predators would
JOSH TRAHAN PHOTO
A bear sits in a tree in Josh Trahan’s backyard on 113 Avenue in Fort St. John, Aug. 18, 2020.
much rather live somewhere us humans don’t, but when they run out of something to eat, or for any of the many reasons, they go looking. And when they discover a community that has more cats and dogs than people, or herds of deer now living with no fear of predators, the pickin’s are easy and great. Top this up with us now doing a much better job of designing forest corridors into neighborhoods that allow wild animals to hide, re-stocking salmon back into their former habitats, and we end up building a welcoming environment where critters can stroll into the ultimate death trap. Pugs, Siamese cats, Labrador retrievers, salmon in small creeks, and tame deer are no match for hungry predators. Once predators arrive, most do not wish to leave. Yes, some will, and for some, capture and release elsewhere works, but for most, neither works. It is called habituation and that is a death song. My flat earth reality is that eventually every black bear that calls Coquitlam home will be shot, or as many prefer, euthanized, as if that
descriptor is somehow better for the animal. B.C.’s many rural communities have a much easier time dealing with problematic wildlife in residential neighborhoods. Here in Fort St John, a moose that refuses to leave and becomes a nuisance is usually tranquilized and moved out of town. They can easily adapt back into the farmlands and bush, as that is where they came from. Bears, not so much. Move them out and back they come so, bears magically disappear and most accept that. Unfortunate and a waste, but reality. As to the moose shot by the pellet gun, most residents were upset and do not condone the harassing or maiming of wildlife. Victoria, Coquitlam, or other large municipalities have a totally different reaction. Lock up the pugs, install high voltage fences around gardens and fruit trees (hope the little ones from down the street understand motion of matter), let these critters run free, and just hope that it is someone else’s pug that is sacrificed.
But there is hope, we do have solutions. No, it is not called Management by Social Media, which our Premier seems to prefer. It’s called Wildlife Management. And it works. COs know and understand their jobs. Police understand what is required when public safety is at risk. Bylaw officers are perfectly capable of looking after small critters causing problems. The problem is, we don’t let them, and when they are forced to, we howl like that long lost lone wolf’s pack. Do I advocate ridding all communities of all wildlife? No, but certainly when critters pose a public safety risk or have become a nuisance. Our B.C. government does understands this. Although they banned hunting of grizzly bears, they did instruct COs to shoot, or have shot, over 20 grizzly bears in the Bella Coola valley in the past two years. They just advocate for different rules in Victoria or Coquitlam. Evan Saugstad is a former mayor of Chetwynd, and is one of hundreds of thousands of B.C.’s hunters and fishers.
It came from beneath the outhouse
I
looked extensively on Google and could not find a proper term for the phobia surrounding outhouses. I discovered the term ‘paruresis’, which is the fear of public toilets and learned about ‘portaphobia’, which is a phobia of using portable toilets, but neither fit the definition of a fear of the big ol’ outhouse. Why did I spend 10 minutes of my life trying to find a term for the phobia about using an outhouse? Because someone in Alaska just experienced my biggest fear: ‘Bear bites woman’s bare bottom from outhouse toilet in Alaska’, as headlined by Global News. You know something? A bear hiding in the outhouse hole was not really on my list of potential hazards. My rational mind had always assured me that there was no way a bear could get down there... could it? I spent my formative years worried about things like wasps or spider nests, maybe even a snake hiding in the depth of the outhouse, ready to strike my fanny when I was at my most vulnerable. It didn’t matter that there was 0% chance that a rattle snake would be down the hole, I double checked for the
JUDY KUCHARUK sound and the beady little snake eyes before resting my hiney on the seat. Rewind to when I was a child, when my family spent a few weeks each summer at a lake in northern Alberta. We stayed in our fifth wheel trailer that came equipped with a lovely bathroom complete with a toilet. Did we use that lovely bathroom with the comfortable, clean toilet? No, that toilet was off limits – we were sent to the campground outhouse for our business. I cried. I complained. I said that I would refuse to poop for the entire time we were on vacation. I was terrified of the outhouse; the smell, the flies buzzing up in the ceiling, the fear that someone would walk in while I was doing my business and finally, the fear that a wasp/spider/ snake/thing would attack my behind. I would rather use the bush than use the outhouse. Now I have to worry about bears biting my rear.
Don’t let COVID keep you from your doctor When the post appeared, I was shocked. An acquaintance had not only been diagnosed with breast cancer, but she had been advised that it was aggressive and had already metastasized. She shared that in hindsight she should have known something was wrong, but had hesitated to get checked out because of COVID, etc. The ‘I’m not bleeding to death, so I’m not going to go to the hospital’ mentality that so many of us share had backfired horribly. It’s not her fault at all. We have adopted that same mentality. During this past year of the pandemic, we don’t want
to bother anyone with a ‘what if?’, nor do we want to enter a hospital ER and, a) potentially expose ourselves to COVID, or b) take up valuable resources for something that could be minor. It’s a Catch-22 where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I wonder if any research will be done on how many lives have been lost or compromised because of our perception of the changed healthcare delivery model created during the pandemic? I know for a fact that there are folks who refuse to visit the ER because they know that they may have to stay by themselves, and that is something that becomes a deal breaker. Consequences:
A small cut becomes an infected wound requiring antibiotics or wound care; a lingering headache you have been overtreating with pain medication was masking something more serious. I don’t blame our medical system, nor do I blame healthcare providers. I blame the pandemic; this thing called COVID, and how it has affected our personal response to our own healthcare needs. In many cases, we are making the choice to not seek medical attention because of restrictions and changes to the medical delivery model. I’m certain that our doctors are equally as frustrated by our reticence to reach out when things are not quite right. I’m certain they would prefer to run a blood test or two in order to detect and subsequently ward off a potential catastrophic health situation. They won’t know and be able to treat if we don’t tell them. The bottom line? COVID restrictions aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Stop being a martyr and make those doctors appointments or, if necessary, take that trip to the emergency room. Please. We don’t want to lose you.