Attention all players

Rabid hockey fans and players alike who just can't get enough will have something to do in August when the Ghostriders host a well timed conditioning camp just before the Riders main camp. This camp will be a great tune up for players who are going to junior camps and will give the local fans something to watch before the season starts.

Here's the formal announcement .

The Fernie Ghostriders would like to announce 3 ice times in August for players to get ready for camps. The ice times will run August 24,26 and 28 from 7pm to 8:30pm. The ice times will be comprised of skating drills, puck drills and scrimmage time. Cost of the 3 ice times is $30 and will be limited to 30 skaters and 4 goaltenders. Individual ice times may be available depending on registration. Ice times open to all players 1st year Bantam and older. Spots on a first come first serve basis. Ideally there will be room for 20 forwards, 10 dmen and 4 goaltenders.

To register for these 3 ice times please email williamverner@hotmail.com

Ghostriders add two locals to the roster

The Ghostriders have started the summer rebuilding process by signing a couple of local players this week in Geoff Doka and Brendon Mangone.


Geoff Doka is a 17 year old year old who played several games with the Ghostriders as an AP last year. Geoff has also been a regular at Rider practices over the last couple of years and has good skills to go with decent speed.


Brendon Mangone is more of a crasher banger who doesn’t care who he hits and in the games I’ve seen him play (as a 15 year old) his checking resulted in some offence being generated. He showed a remarkable lack of fear in the few games he played with the Riders. Brendon also has some KIJHL genes in his pants, his father Sam had pretty good hands and scored some nice goals when he played in Sparwood with the “ Raiders” twenty something years ago.


Here’s Coach Will Verner on Doka and Mangone.


Geoff Doka, 1992, RW, 5’11”, 172, Fernie.
Verner “Geoff is a very skilled player, skates very well and he has the ability to score goals. We are very excited to add a hometown player that is familiar to our program with the skill-set Geoff possesses. Experience is important when we recruit and we feel that Geoff has been around our club over the past two years and sees what it takes to win a championship. As an affiliate player, Doka recorded 2 goals in 9 games played. I think Geoff has shown improvement over the past two seasons and has developed his defensive side of his game. Off the ice Geoff is very involved in the community and very active at Fernie Secondary”.



Brendon Mangone, 1993, LW, 6’1”, 180, Fernie.
Verner “Brendon played 5 games as an affiliate player for our hockey club last year. While playing for his club team, Kootenay Ice Major Midget, Brendon played 37 games scored 2 goals, 3 assists for 5 points and he recorded 78 penalty minutes. Brendon is a big strong player that competes very hard. He has the ability to get to the net and play in the tougher areas. As one of our two 16 year olds, Brendon will be pushed hard on and off the ice by both the coaching staff and our veteran players”.

Ghostriders 09-10 Schedule hi-lights

The KIJHL 's schedule maker who doubles as Ghostrider President Phil Iddon, has recently finished off this season's schedule. Here are a few Ghostrider hi-lights coming up this season.

We start off with exhibition games at Fernie Memorial September 5 vs. Creston and Sunday September 6 vs. Kimberley.

The big "Home Opener" is on Friday September 25 vs. Creston.

The first game against the hated Kimberley Dynamiters will be at home October 9. The series also features two games in Kimberley on Halloween night and again in November on Friday the 13th. The losers will sacrifice a goat at center ice or something. The first home and home series vs. Kimberley is Nov 13,14

After a fairly vicious playoff series against the Rockets last March these two teams are starting to develop a bit of a rivalry. The first home and home series against Golden is on Oct 16,17.

The always well attended Christmas break games are Dec 18 vs. Armstrong, the 19th vs. CVand 28th vs. Kimberley and Jan 2 vs. Kimberley.

And as always on February 14th it's Dimond Ring night where you can win a dimond ring courtesy of Jay's Jewelers. The game is against Invermere.

view all the Rider games Here

In other news, Fernie and Creston could possibly play a couple of games in Whitehorse this year. Creston's Coach and GM Joe Martin coached in that area a few years ago and could make it happen. More on this one as it develops. Also after two weeks there is no word from BC Hockey on just who will host the Keystone Cup in 2010. Fernie, Nelson. Kamloops, Golden and we hear Kerry Park of the VIJHL have applied.

Ghostrider Main Camp Dates

The Fernie Ghostriders would like to announce our main training camp dates. Camp will start with registration at 830am on Tuesday September 1 @ the Fernie Memorial Arena. All players will be housed in the community centre for the first 3 nights of camp before players are assigned to their billets. Ideally, camp will be made up of two teams consisting of a maximum of 6 goalies, 16 dmen and 26 forwards. Camp will be very competitive from the drop of the puck and veterans will take part. All players need to fill out an application form (to receive an invite please email williamverner@hotmail.com) and mail ipayment to reserve a spot in camp. Camp is already filling up and we will get to a point where we will have to turn players away.

Remember all KIJHL players will need a passport for the 2009-2010 season.

Fernie makes a bid to host the Keystone Cup

The Fernie Ghostriders have applied to host the Keystone Cup next April. The Keystone Cup, for the unenlightened, is the Western Canadian Junior “B” Championship where teams from Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC compete to see who’s the best team in Western Canada. Thunder Bay hosted the tournament last April and the Cyclone Taylor winning Richmond Sockeyes of BC won the championship.

A big part of hosting a tournament like the Keystone is having the available lodging and restaurants to accommodate all the players, coaches, scouts and parents. During the peak of the ski season this would be a problem in Fernie but late in April at the end of the season there would be lots of room in the hotels and all the restaurants etc. would still be geared up for the big crowds.

Here’s Rider President Phil Iddon answering some of those concerns. “The Fernie Ghostriders this week put in a presentation to host the Keystone Cup in the 2009-2010 hockey season. We believe we’ve put in a strong package, we have a great community that could host with several great hotels and restaurants available, and the newly renovated Fernie arena with it’s great dressing room facilities and new boards & glass that increase the playability of the ice surface would make the Fernie Memorial Arena an excellent place to host this tournament”. photo-Phil Iddon-


You can’t have a tournament if you can’t get to the venue.

Phil Iddon “As far as our geographical location for the other Provinces this is the best location due to the proximity of the other Provinces. For travel purposes this is a great place to come and play hockey, we’ve got the Cranbrook (international) airport close at hand and the Calgary airport is just a few hours away and both have the availability of easy access to bussing to and from the Fernie area, so geographically were are great location for the tournament.

Would this tournament help bring in some high end players?

Iddon on recruiting “This would be a great recruiting tool for the Fernie Ghostriders and should put us in a strong position to get the best players we possibly can with the opportunity of hosting the Western Canadians. It’s a great carrot to have out there when trying to recruit players over and above other programs. The other carrot here in Fernie is the strength of our program as it stands. We have great fan support averaging 700 fans a game and several of our players over the years including three players from last years team have furthered their hockey careers in school after graduating from our program.”

Fernie is not the only team to have applied to host the tournament, we hear Nelson, Golden and Kamloops are also in the mix but there could be more teams. The winning bid should be announced in the next few weeks, so keep your fingers crossed Fernie fans.

KIJHL Meetings Conclude

The KIJHL finished up their AGM last weekend where they for the most part settled their schedule and approved a few tweaks of the rule book.

Here’s Coach Will Verner on the new schedule. “ We have a great new schedule and a final copy should be announced in the next week. A couple highlite games include the home opener, September, 25 vs. Creston @ 7:30pm and a Christmas home and home with Kimberley visiting the Fernie Memorial Arena on December 28 and Fernie visiting Kimberley on December 29. The all-star game will be hosted by the Beaver Valley Nighthawks on December 30. The final home game will be our annual ring night, sponsored by Jay's Jewelers, February 14 vs. Columbia Valley Rockies. This year we will be trying to have a sponsor for all of our 25 home games.

If you are like this writer and find that the thrill of the shootout is long gone, you will like this next rule. Overtime has now changed and the league will follow the BCHL's lead and the teams will play 4 on4 for five minutes followed by 3 on 3 for 5 minutes. (both 4 on 4 and 3 on 3 are sudden death) If their is a tie at the end of 3 vs. 3 the score will remain tied and both teams get a point for a tie. Another great change that may create some more goals is that the offensive zone face-off rule after a team takes a penalty will come into effect. In other words if you take a penalty in the other team’s end the ensuing face off will come all the way back to your end.

Unfortunately the KIJHL decided not to allow any extra twenty year olds despite the fact that the other leagues allow more than four.

Here’s Coach Verner on the twenty year old rule. " The league will remain at four 20's. We made a good push and supported the development of our 19s. With the fact that we moved our 20s to college for the upcoming season we felt that our players continue to develop in their 19th and 20th year. We will have to make some difficult decisions over the next few weeks but it is our goal to ensure that all of our 19s who would like to continue in our league will be moved to a situation that best suits our organization and the players' goals.

The KIJHL AGM This Weekend

The KIJHL Governor’s and Coaches are getting together for their Annual General Meeting this weekend that this year will be hosted by the League Champion Nelson Leafs. Some of the things on the agenda for the Governors will be scheduling (will all teams play each other or stay in their divisions) face-offs after penalties (like the NHL face off in the offenders end) and the twenty year old rule. (We have four now but could go to six).

The faceoff rule will likely pass without much discussion, it’s a great rule that was long overdue. It would also be great as far as I’m concerned to go back to the much forgotten fast face-off we had a few years ago. Hate watching the players mill around taking their time going to the bench, plus there’s a better chance the coaches will miss a matchup. More goals maybe?

The schedule is all about money, and travel costs money, so don’t expect to see all the teams this season. Gotta hate that rule.

Twenty year old numbers are always controversial (some coaches and several Billet Coordinators I know don’t want any) but when you play in the Cyclone Taylor Cup the other leagues are allowed more than four twenty’s so the KIJHL should fix that up and give the teams six. Especially considering the KIJHL has a new expansion team this year, the BCHL has also expanded into Williams Lake ( Fourty or so less players available) and a KIJHL team will host the Keystone Cup next April.

And finally, the coaches usually show up at the meetings because it’s a great chance for them to get to know their trading partners and have a couple of pops.