Wayne March, the long-time Sicamous Eagles general manager, said what he cherished about his 28 years with the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League organization were advancing players to “bigger and better things in their lives.”
“We had some good kids go through us,” said March, before his passing early last week.
Those making the NHL were Shea Weber, Cody Franson, Deryk Engelland, Kris Beech and Andrew Ebbett. He was also very proud of their KIJHL championships (1994-95, 2001-02, and 2005-06) and Western Canadian championships. He was thankful to the Sicamous community for supporting the organization “as much as they could.”
“The community stood behind me,” he said.
Rob Sutherland, a long-time Eagles volunteer who was brought on by March, says the 80-year-old “was the organization.”
His favourite memories of March are from enjoying coffee together. Sutherland would go into March’s office, always being welcomed, and “being able to ask anything I needed to ask.”
As Sutherland says, March trusted him.
“He started asking me to do more and more for the team, I did appreciate that he trusted me to get the job done. He let me have that freedom,” he said.
“When I came here to Sicamous, I was pretty young and he did it all,” adds Sutherland. “He took care of pretty much everything to do with the team. The coach ran hockey – that was the beauty thing about Wayne. The hockey was handled by the coach, but Wayne handled everything else.”
Blair Robinson, a former Eagles head coach, said it was great working with March, who was passionate about having a good team and winning.
“He was all about the kids,” said Robinson.
What he learned from March to have success as a coach was if you surround yourself with good hockey people, it makes everybody’s job easier.
“He was very passionate about winning, very community-oriented and would do anything to make the league better,” adds Robinson. “He felt parity was good for better competition and allowed players to advance to the next level.”
Between the senior men’s Eagles (10 years) and the Junior hockey club, March was involved for 38 years.
Sheila Devost, the Eagles governor and past president, said without March, “there are no Eagles.”
“Wayne was the Eagles, and still is very much present in that arena when you go in. We’re doing our best to make him proud as we enter into our 30th season,” she said. “His spirit and his ways really do live on in many ways with the team. He is mentioned quite often.”
Terry Jones, the Beaver Valley Nitehawks head coach-general manager, said when he thinks about March, it’s of his early days with Hank Deadmarsh (Nitehawks GM from 1996-07).
“We had some great rivalries in the early 2000s. You are talking about Shea Weber, Barrett Jackman, some of our best teams ever where they won some and we won some,” said Jones. “Wayne is a real competitive force in the league and he was instrumental in the formation of the Doug Birks division.
“Wayne was a cagey guy. I can remember lots of recruitment battles trying to get the same players,” Jones continued. “When I think about Wayne, I think pretty fondly about a guy who was spirited about building a good team in a small town. What he did in Sicamous, and what we’ve done in Beaver Valley, for a lot of years, we were really battling each other in small marketplaces. There’s a lot of respect.”
Jones added as the league takes on a more professional touch, a lot is owed to people like Wayne, who set the foundation for what the league has been. He and people such as former league president Bill Ohlhausen, have really helped develop the league to what it is today.
