The Bancroft Rockhounds are set to start playing in September, but there’s a lot of work to be done before then.
There were many names submitted by residents hoping to be the ones that get to name the team, but Jeff Mills was the lucky winner. He, like many others, wanted to see the new team be named Rockhounds.
There were plenty of smiling faces at the game on Saturday, including Mills’ son who he said predicted the game would go into overtime. It did, with the Bradford Rattlers besting the Almaguin Spartans 4-3 in the shootout.
“The biggest step is getting a general manager and coach,” Bob Russell, the President of the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League and the President of the Bancroft Rockhounds, said after the game. He added that they need to fill roles from the timekeeper to the various other game-day roles. They also need to get started on designing the team’s jerseys. Russell says that it’s a lot of work, the people involved with the Rockhounds have worked on building teams before so they know what needs to be done and how to do it.
The team’s management will also need to get to work finding players. Russell says that’s going to be the hardest challenge for them.
He mentioned that he’s been trying to get a good team to the area for the past 25 years. He says he’s loved the area ever since he started cottaging on Baptiste Lake around 40 years ago. “We knew all along if there was a good winning team we would get the crowd support,” Russell said when asked what he thought of Bancroft. He said the last game he attended here was in 2004. Russell says hundreds of fans showed up to watch a below .500 team. Russell says he knows if the Bancroft Rockhounds are a good team, this town will support them.