The West Coast Senior Hockey League has a new executive in place and a number of changes have been made to the league constitution for the 2018-2019 season.
Wayne Hounsell of Stephenville was elected president of the west coast senior hockey setup at the league’s annual general meeting held recently at Day’s Inn in Stephenville.
Hounsell takes over the helm from Andy Brake of Deer Lake, who serves as vice-president of senior council for Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador and wasn’t interested in running for the top post again this year.
Brake will stay connected to the league in his HNL role and he’s eager to play any role he can to support movers and shakers with the west coast setup to keep it a sound league where parity exists for all four community teams in the fold.
Brake said the executive had a number of issues that surfaced last winter that caused concern for various teams and a lot of those items were discussed around the table.
He said there were holes in the constitution that had to be fixed this year and he believes most of the big concerns expressed by the teams have been addressed.
He said there were a total of 40 notices of motions with some being thrown out but the majority receiving the blessings of the representatives in the room.
One of the biggest changes for the 2018-2019 season is the expansion of the territorial limits for teams. The league voted to have the league extends its territory to include Green Bay/White Bay with the area being neutral for three out of the four teams.
He said the Royals will be the only team not allowed to recruit players from that area because the league felt Corner Brook has the population to support a competitive team without having to go outside the area to recruit players.
“So, obviously, that makes our constitution much stronger and deals with most issues that may occur through the winter so it certainly should make life a lot simpler going forward,” Brake said.
The new executive also includes vice-president Paul Lawlor of Stephenville, treasurer Jamie Young of Port aux Basques, secretary Dave Bruce of Corner Brook and public relations officer Beth Williams of Deer Lake. The board of directors include Art Barry of Stephenville, Perry Compton of Deer Lake, Craig Kennedy of Corner Brook and Shannon Battiste of Port aux Basques.
