day, we struggle to get 10 skaters.  This is by reason of age.  Half of the players showing up eager to play Monday are not old enough to play in our over 35 league.  Our eligible players are lacking.  There are the usual slow starters who take until Christmas to get into hockey mode.  We have a few who haven't yet recovered from last year's injuries.  Some have moved and can't manage the commute (from Toronto).  Another is hoping to score better grades in night school than he does on the ice (we're all hoping he learns enough to pass).  The result is our playing roster is diminished and we are going to have a very difficult time competing at this stage.

Obviously we need to recruit more players.  That is more challenging than meets the eye.  It is always difficult to find quality players over 35 years old that are not already committed to another team.  If we can find them, we will expect them to show up for Monday night practice, which is already bursting at the seams.  So, do we tell some of the younger players to stay home or just invite the new players to games only?

Twenty-five years in, it's time we looked to our youth.  Over the next year we will be working toward establishing a youth team in some capacity. At the same time we will try to maintain a competitive existing team.  Some players will be able to play on both teams.  Some will not.  In the meantime, our focus has to turn to re-building our current team.  The call to renewed commitment is not enough.  The fact is, most of the players we have right now are more committed to the team than ever.  We are just two players away from having a solid foundation to build on.  I guarantee that by after Christmas we will have achieved that, but it needs to happen sooner if we are going to have time to build a tight unit capable of making a solid play-off drive.

This is a pivotal year for the Cowboys.  We stand poised to launch the next generation of Cowboy Hockey, while at the same time teeter on the brink of collapse. This season will be monumental for the Cowboys.  It will mark a new beginning, or stand as a memorial to the past.  I'm looking to the future and expect brilliant things ahead.  And what ever transpires, I can assure you of one thing... we are going to have one great party this year.

- by Doug Collins,
Manager, the Richmond Cowboys

While there are many very good and real reasons why I have been remiss in reporting recent happenings, I blame it mostly on a simple lack of inspiration.   I frankly have found very little of interest to report.  At first it seemed a little unusual to me that a team could come into a milestone 25th season without generating much excitement.  But then again, a recreational hockey entering it's 25th season is a little usual in itself.  Who would know what to expect?  Perhaps we should be all be pumped up and feeling very proud of our achievements? Should we not be seeing a resurgence it the team commitment?  Should we not be spilling over on the benches with everyone wanting to be a part of the glory!

Instead, and I speak for myself, (but perhaps for others too),  I'm just feeling a just little old and kind of tired.

I fear the psychological affect of a milestone season may be having the opposite than desired result.  Maybe rather than inspiring players to continue another 25 years, it is coming to some as a hint that maybe there time has come.  (I don't want to talk about specific players, because I wouldn't want to offend guys like Hap May, Ross Hillman, Pat O'Neill or Al Baxter.  These guys have there reasons and they're all still commitment to the team even though they haven't made a game yet.) There are those like myself who are making games but are feeling that they are contributing less and less.  Twenty-five years is a long time to play hockey. Maybe some are thinking it's as good a time as any to call it a career.

That would be unfortunate.  

I cannot deny that I have considered how appropriate it might be if this was my last season.  I wonder if others have thought the same. (Shut up, I meant about themselves!) The problem is, even though 25 is a nice round number, there is no logical signal to usher players into retirement.  I apologize to the younger players, but I cannot see any reason to give up when I see the likes of a Rich Skapski or a Ron Fontaine.  True, they may not be game breaking players, but if you take them out of the line up, you take away a lot.  These guys make a difference.  It is especially true if you look beyond the game itself.  There is more to a team than goals or goals against, winning and losing, or who make the greatest plays.  It's about character.  It's about heart.  It's about effort and it's about an obligation to your teammates and yourself.  When a team consists of players like that, victory seeks them out.

This season is very significant.  Our history and future teeters on counting stone.  On one end youth anxiously waits to climb aboard, and the other, age and experience struggles to center the fulcrum.  With such a delicate balancing act taking place, perhaps that is good reason for our team to be so horribly average. The  act of stabilizing the uncertainty may be draining the effort.  If we are uninspired, perhaps we are like a tightrope walker, frozen mid span concentrating on maintaining a balance.  Perhaps it is time we put our eyes forward and moved toward the future in much the same fashion that got us so far.

There is much speculation about the Richmond Cowboys.  Questions arise about how we can accommodate the youth, how we continue to provide a venue for the aging and what the team may look like in the coming seasons, but there should be no question about what the team looks like right now.  Man for man it may not be the best line up in recent history, but when I look at what we have right now, I like what I see - although I don't much like what I smell.

I will endeavour to maintain an online continuing chronicle when I can find the time.  I would love to be able to report on how 'old' Cowboys continue to lead the way for the youth - something like, "48 year old Paul Falconer leads the team in scoring!" - yeah, right... like that would ever happen!

- by Doug Collins,
Manager, the Richmond Cowboys

This was the sixth official Old Boot Challenge, where the Original 1979 team re-unites to challenge the newer players on the team. Played outside Richmond for the first time, at Tilbury Arena, there was something else different about this game.  It was the first time the Original Team would not carry in the Old Boot!  Last year the "Rookie" team defeat the "Old Boots" for the first time. 

It was something the Original Team was not used to, but maybe they better get used to it.  Used to it or not, they didn't have to like it.  Maurice sure didn't!  

The game started slow for the Originals, but quite quickly for the Rookies.  By the 2nd period the Old Boots were down 4 - 0.  Coach Cruickshank repremanded his players.  This was not the game plan.  The plan was only to spot the Rookies 3 goals, not 4!   The team rallied like days of old, took back their 3 goals and battled within a goal.  

In the third period, "Coach" pulled out all the stops, shuffled the lines demonstrating coaching skills that made the whole team fully appreciate why he had retired.  He put his three best shooters on the forward line and everyone else on the bench.  While the rest of the team tried to figure out why we were suddenly 2 men short, Rick May mercilessly walked in a scored, putting the Rookies up 5 - 3.

Reeling from the blow and with just minutes left on the clock, the Old Boots were down but not out.  Coach Crucikshank made his best move of the night and pulled Andre Retel from the net.  With extra attacters, the Original team stormed the Rookie zone.  A desparate battle in the corner and a frantic flurry in front of the net and the Originals were suddenly back within 1 with less than a minute to go.  It was if the spirit of Maurice was with them.  Some say he was.  Some even say they saw him.  In fact, the Rookie team even went so far as to say that the Old Boots had too many men on the ice and should be penalized!  The referee would not hear the arguement.  Even if he did see him, he couldn't call too many men, after all it was a ghost!

The pucked dropped at centre ice with seconds left and the Old Boot net empty.  In old Cowboys 'dump and chase' style Hap May flipped the puck into the Rookie zone.  Goaltender Dave Harkness chased it to the corner before the Old Boots could get to it. But rather than clear the puck, he fumbled with it clumsily.  The puck came loose, the Old Boots came up with it, and Dave Harkness was still stuck in the corner.  The puck back to the point. Harkness was still in the corner, leaning face first against the boards.  With nobody around him he couldn't seem to get his balance.  The puck was in front and the net was wide open.  Dave Harkness was against the boards as if some invisible force was holding him there.  The shot!  The game would be tied, but the puck did not cross the red line.  A Rookie player (I believe it was Pat O'Neil would was supposed to be drafted to the Old Boots team this year had the Rookie not been short players) reached across and blocked it on the line!

The Rookies may have score in the empty net after that, I'm not sure.  It didn't matter.  The Old Boots had given it all they had (and then some) but it just wasn't enough this time.  Clearly the Rookies have come of age.  Their desire to win was only outdone by their desire to celebrate afterwards.  The story goes on, but this is where it ends for me.  I left early that night (relatively speaking) determined to recover the Old Boot next year.  I was offered a ride home by a stranger in the parking lot.  He was a curious old fellow with gray hair and a jet black beard. He was kind enough, but seemed to be in a bad mood.  He didn't say much on the drive home, he just kept muttering something about a cold right foot.
 

- Doug "Mr. Cowboy" Collins 

little girl would have to stay in the womb until Nadine was through with her own birthday party.  Derek & Nadine calmly continued on their evening out and wouldn't bother going to the hospital until the next morning!  Deliver went very smooth - nothing to for a woman of her calibre.  Squeezing out a tiny 5 lbs 11oz sprog is no more difficult than pulling your lower lip up over top of your head.  Derek claims he did most of the work. The fact is, when things started to happen there wasn't even time for Nadine to get any drugs.  (I'm not sure about Derek).  When the time came for delivery, the nurse could not believe how quickly Nadine had dilated.  She popped her out like a good ole farm girl in the back of a pick up truck on a bumpy road.  

Nadine confesses that most of her pre-natal training escaped her and she pretty much forgot how to breath for a while.  But that was okay, it worked out fine and with one final push, life began for Madison Keira May. In that same instant, life would take on a whole a new meaning for Derek and Nadine.

Over 350,000 babies are born everyday and each one is special. This one is particularly special to us.  The birth of Madison May marks a new generation for the Richmond Cowboys.  I expect her great grand dad, Duncan May, the original "Cowboy Daddy" is the proudest of us all.  Duncan is father to 5 hockey players that form the heart of the Richmond Cowboys Hockey Club.  He is grandfather to 2 other veteran players, Derek and Cory.  When the Cowboys Hockey Club began, Uncle Cory was younger than Madison is today!  There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then, and in the winter, a lot of pucks over the ice.  We're not sure if Madison will become a hockey player or not, but we do know that there is hockey in her blood.  She is the newest member of a team that, as of Februay 9th, spans 4 generations, Duncan May being the Daddy of us all.   As we welcome Madison into our world, it is only fitting that we pay tribute to the man who made all of it possible.  The Cowboy Daddy is a father figure to all of us. His gentleman behaviour, hard working nature and character beyond reproach are the attributes our team is built on.  If we played every game with the kind of character that Duncan May possesses, we would never lose a game.  Madison May is a very lucky girl to carry such incredible linage.

Derek and Nadine are gradually getting used having a baby in their house, although I think they are having a hard time believing it's actually their own.  Their sleep pattern has changed as Derek finds himself sleeping with a new girl now.  Every day is different.  Life is has fully embraced them.  

Derek stills loves hockey, but now his favourite thing to do is hold his daughter and look deep into her eyes... everything else is just details.

- by Doug Collins,
Manager, the Richmond Cowboys

Losing in the Finals two years in a row is not something to brag about.  However, if you look at what we were up against at the beginning of the season, you have to say we did pretty well this season.  At the start you would have found a lot of takers if you bet the Cowboys would make the Final again this season.  From the onset we were down 5 players, 3 of them of top scorers respectively.  Derek May was out on injury again.  Norm Warn was seeking higher education and mostly unavailable game nights. Lawrence Bourke was spending the winter in Toronto (go figure).  Old age was creeping up on Ross Hillman and a knee injury was making his return questionable.  Trevor Harris, who missed the entire last season was uncertain if he could recover even for this year.  For reason unclear to me, Pat O'Neill decided to just skate Monday night practices. (I think Paul Falconer might have told him he was cut or something.)  Hap May was set to return full time, but work, injury, personal commitment and general old age kept him out for all but 1 game.  Then the youngster, Cory May, forgot that even though it was summer in Australia it was still hockey season in Canada.  He disappeared Down Under for a couple key months.

If all that was enough, we would later lose two key defensemen to injury.  Matt Donnelly, in a untimely ungraceful moment stepped on the puck and blew his already weak knee out for the season and beyond.  Later on, Dave Fair (likely wearing rented skates) would fall heavy on his shoulder and be gone for the season. Dave Fontaine, who has as big a heart you can find out there, found it beating irregularly, forcing him to the sidelines for a time.  As you can see, we were not left with much.  For a brief time, I was the leading scorer on the team.  Later Paul Falconer took over the honour.  Clearly we were in trouble.

It was not all bad.  We did acquire some young talent in the likes of Rob Wilson.  Derek eventually recovered and returned to full time action, even after fathering a child.  And Nom did manage to work in quite a few games.  Still, if we were looking for excuses, didn't have to look far.  It was looking like a dismal 25th season for this battered team and I was predicting that we would be lucky to finish 4 place, barely making the play-offs.  That was the only thing I had predicted correctly.

While I had once envisioned the Quarter Century season to be a celebration of longevity and an inspiration for a longer, brighter future with plenty of enthusiasm,  I now saw a dank prospect of questionable fate.  I feared rather than a celebration, a eulogy. It was seeming like my visions of celebration and inspiration for the club was about to backfire.  As I wrote in December ("Inspiration or Perspiration"), it was becoming clear to me that for many, the psychological implications of 25 years of hockey was having a negative impact.  You have to remember that the core group of current players have been playing on this team for that long. Maybe some were considering a milestone year a convenient year to hang them up?  In case anyone was wondering, this is the reason why I have failed to make good on a huge 25 year celebration.  It's just too nostilgic and I fear some may be looking further back than forward.

It was just after Christmas that an even more foreboding situation transpired.  The league (RIHL) executive, also fearing the onslot of old age, carried a vote to exclude all players under the age of 30, including current players.  This included Cory and Derek May, not only two of our top players, but the core of our foundation to build on.  At the time it seemed like the 'writing on the wall' to me.  This would push our average age well over 40, making the oldest age team in league even older.  If we were having trouble competing this year, how could we have a hope next year?  Certainly there was the remote possibility of recruiting more quality older players, but if that were easy we wouldn't be playing games with just 10 skaters. But beyond that, the idea of cutting any player (let alone our best players) went against one of the fundamental ideals of our team. "Once a Cowboy, always a Cowboy."  Sure players have left the team over the years, and occassionally under unpleasant conditions, but we have never cut a player, and we were not about to start now.

Our course of action was clear.  We would be forced to leave the RIHL.  In a way it was like being shoved from the nest.  I idea about forming a younger team in another league had been floating out there for some time.  Now seemed like the obvious time to throw that concept into full gear. I announced to the team that the Cowboys would be forming a new youth team to play in a younger league and that my priorities as Team Manager would focus primarily on that objective.  While the existing team would not be abandoned, it was uncertain what venue would host it. 

In retrospect, I believe I had the full support of all, but I also think it was signalling the end to some of our elder players.  Just as bad, I truly felt that the RIHL was making a huge mistake and that the loss of the Cowboys could lead to the demise of the entire league.  Even if the Cowboys were no longer in the RIHL, I did not want to see such as great league fail.  After much consideration and allowing rumours to spread freely, I requested that the RIHL reconsider its position.  They did, and unnamomously voted to revise the rule to allow Derek and Cory to remain in the league.

By play-offs, some of the teams may have regretted that decision, particularly the 1st place Raiders who fell 2 games straight in the Semi-finals to a revitalized team.  In the Finals we kept hearing comments from the opposition about young players.  (Our over 50 year old players should consider it a compliment that they apparently were unnoticed.)  Still, I believe the league is happy to still have the Cowboys and a league.  But I assure you we will do as much as we can to make them regret it again in next year's play-offs.

So it is back to status quo for the Cowboys and the RIHL.  This is a good thing, but all is not well.  We still face the eventuallity of our mortality and unlike Ron Fontaine, not all plan to play when they are 80.(We might reconsider when we are as close to 80 as he is.)  Sooner than later, our 'failing hands must pass the torch' and we need to ensure that there are those to 'hold it high'.  For that reason more than ever I am committed to the development of a Cowboy Youth Squad.  The wheels are in motion to recruit younger players and secure a spot in an appropriate league.  But herein lies the problem.

Clearly some of us can no longer compete in a younger league, and even if we were willing (and I am) we would not be doing our youth any favours.  In fact, it would defeat the purpose.  But there are certain not-so-old players that would be quite welcome on this new team.  This would be fine if they were willing to be equally committed to both teams.  But with busy schedules and the likelihood of conflicting game times, it will not be practical. They would have to pick a team, and if they go for youth, then I question the viability of maintaining an older team. By starting the wheels rolling for the youth, we risk rolling right over and crushing the original team.

The questions I put out to you now is this;  Do we control or possibly restrict members of the existing team from playing on the Youth team?  Do we even have the power to do that?  Will the Youth team even be able to fly if we do?

Our future as a Hockey Club depends now on commitment more than ever.  Looking back on the season that thought might scare me.  But not when you take a clear look at the reality.  The reality is that even though we struggled to get players out all year long, it was not due to lack of commitment.  If you take a close look, you will see a core of players as dedicated to this team as we have ever had.  Sure we had misfortunes, but nearly all those who missed games would have been there if they had any control over the circumstances.  And those who were there continued to be there game after game.  More players made more games this season than I can remember.  The weekly roster was down, but collectively, even if we didn't have enough players to form steady lines, the attendance was as consistent as it as has ever been.  So clearly any further speeches about team dedication are pointless. (They always are, because only the dedicated players are ever there to hear it.)  The group of individuals is clearly defined.  It is also clear that the group is too small.  We have to allow for the growing probability that aging players may not be capable (not by lack of dedication) of delivering the level of commitment required to achieve the goals of this team.  That coupled with the potential diffusion of the club with the establishment of a youth team leads to an obvious point.  We need more players!

This is an old statement, but this time I can say it with more vigour, because for the first time since we joined the RIHL in seven years ago,  I can also say we need more YOUNG PLAYER!  The Cowboy Youth Squad will only be launched when we can prove that it can be done under its own power.  That is to say we require enough NEW players to support a new team.  If we can do that, that I believe the problems I have suggested will work themselves out. Only then will I be ready to celebrate.

- Mr. Cowboy