PHOTO COURTESY: GARRETT JAMES PHOTOGRAPHY
”We don’t always control what happens to us, but we do control how we respond to it.” I don’t know who said that first, but it is something that resonates with our League office every day. Coming out of having our 2020 playoffs cancelled, then our exhibition season halted, then a long wait until we got to the pod season, it was a year that we will never forget. The difficulties of not knowing whether we were going to play weighed heavily on our players, our coaches, and, of course, our fans. We are not out of the COVID-19 crisis yet, but there are signs that the vaccinations are allowing us to get back to some normalcy. We have been allowed to get back to competition and to allow our valued fans back in the building at a 50 per cent capacity. I would first like to thank the Provincial Health Authorities that have been responsive and understanding of the importance of getting our players on the ice. While we were unable to have a perfect season and unable to award the Fred Page Cup last year, we still got many of our players enough game exposure to help them earn college entry. Now, with hopefully the worst behind us, we can concentrate on what we are here to do – play hockey. Our season commences in October and we are planning for each team to play a full season and get to the playoffs without any stoppages due to the virus. With that in mind, we are following the provincial laws for vaccination in B.C. and we are thrilled to be playing our games in front of you – the fans. I know I speak for all our players and team staff when I say, hockey just wasn’t the same without you. This pandemic has shown us that things can change in an instant, but, as I said, if we are met with circumstances out of our control, we will respond. In the meantime, enjoy the games! Chris Hebb BCHL Commissioner
We are excited to be welcoming fans back into the Train Station this year, and we are happy to have some sort of normalcy back in our lives. The last 18+ months has been incredibly hard on everyone, our fans, our volunteers, our sponsors and our players but we stuck together and we will continue to stick together as we get out of COVID. This will be my second year as General Manager of the Express but first under what is expected to be a 'normal' year. We have spent a lot of time reshaping our organization from top to bottom. We named a head Head Coach Brandon Shaw in May of 2021 alongside a number of new staff and players. The goal we have is to bring a championship back to the Tri-Cities. I also want to make sure fans know they can reach out to me at anytime with a question, comment, concern, suggestion, etc. My email is Tali@CoquitlamExpress.ca Now fans...let's get loud this season. We all missed being back in the arena.
Tali Campbell