The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
West Elk Wolverines
It’s official, the West Elk Hockey Association (WEHA) is the home for hockey in the Gunnison Valley.
Gunnison and Crested Butte joined forces to create WEHA, a new club that brings the valley together under one umbrella, from the Mini-Mites all the way to the Masters adult division, girls and boys, men and women.
Joining both ends of the valley has been talked about for a while, but the process moved into the formative stages two years ago.
“Recognition of the idea has always been on the tip of our tongues,” says current WEHA president John Solanik. “The dialogue became much stronger two years ago.”
Gunnison’s hockey history can be traced back to 1981 when the first rink was built, complete with a lined pond, dirt banks and a small makeshift warming house.
By 1998 the facility expanded and youth programs grew to include teams for every age group for both boys and girls. In November 2008, the first indoor ice arena in the Gunnison Valley opened its doors and the Gunnison Valley Hockey Association (GVHA) was formed, moving hockey from Gunnison Parks and Recreation to GVHA.
Last year, GVHA had 166 kids involved in youth hockey programs, 245 adults playing in the fall season, and 168 adults playing in the winter league.
The town of Crested Butte’s hockey roots can be traced back to the days of broomball at the corner of Fourth and Whiterock in the late 1980s. That soon moved to the empty lot next to True Value and then progressed into hockey and found a home in 1992 at Big Mine Park. Since then, hockey has exploded in the Crested Butte area—so much so that the saying goes, “Crested Butte is a ski town with a hockey problem.” Or even, “a hockey town with a ski problem.”
Crested Butte Parks and Recreation hockey programs came to a head last year. In the winter of 2013-2014 there were 125 adults playing town league hockey and 121 kids playing from ages 4 to 18, including 46 kids under the age of eight.
“Our numbers, especially at the younger age groups, are very strong,” says Crested Butte recreation supervisor Lauren Alkire.
Two years ago, the Crested Butte Parks and Recreation program saw the numbers on the horizon and started looking into the idea of handing over youth hockey to a club.
“The programs were growing such that they were growing out of the rec department mission,” says Alkire.
In addition, there was a push for a more competitive option for the youth hockey teams, including a call for tryouts and splitting age group teams according to ability.
“We did A and B teams the past couple of years and saw some success,” says Alkire. “But it’s hard for our department to support tryouts based on our mission statement.…what people wanted the hockey program to be was very hard for the rec department to do.”
The push to join the two ends of the valley came out of a desire by both the Crested Butte Parks and Recreation and GVHA to provide something extra for the kids programs.
“The goal is to create an environment where we could appropriately place players within their talent level so they can grow and exceed at their level,” says WEHA’s Solanik. “Put the right players in the right level of play.”
They hope to do that with the WEHA Wolverines. The plan for the 2014-2015 season is to have mini-Mites and Mites age groups remain in their hometown programs. The next three age groups, Squirts (ages 9-10), Peewees (ages 11-12) and Bantams (ages 13-14), will have two team options per group, complete with player observations, or tryouts, conducted and the players will be divided accordingly.
“There’s no north, south,” says Solanik. “Just hockey.”
And that’s the ultimate goal for the Midget group (ages 15-18) as well, though that is still up in the air. The Midget age group leagues have been in flux at the state level for the past several years, with both Crested Butte and Gunnison forced to switch leagues on an almost annual basis.
This year, WEHA Midgets will enter another new league, Colorado Prep Hockey League. As of right now, WEHA has no idea whether the new league will able to offer options for A and B teams, i.e., tiered play, or whether they will allow only evenly divided teams to play.
“It’s a great league but being new, they’re not sure what the best structure is,” says Solanik. “We’re lobbying to get the league to entertain a tiered option. We want to get competitive hockey at that level. We’re at the mercy of the league.”
The youth programs will officially kick off with the annual Hocktober Camp October 10-13.
As for the adult hockey programs, rest assured, all will be normal. WEHA will be handling the organization and structure of the Gunnison fall and winter leagues just as GVHA did in the past, including five league options in the fall. As for Crested Butte town league hockey, WEHA will oversee that now as well, but will keep things the same.
“We expect no real changes in the adult hockey programs,” says WEHA administrator and long-time local hockey enthusiast Jack Gibbons. “The merger will not change a thing. Crested Butte town league will stay the same, draft and all.”
Registration, deadlines and more information for all WEHA programs can be found at their website, wehockey.org.
