The Kamloops North Paws season is just over a month away but some of their players are still hoping to find billet families to stay with.
Much like the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers and the KIJHL’s Kamloops Storm, the team will mostly be made up of young men from out of town.
Appearing on the NL Morning News, NorthPaws Operations Manager, Jamie Shinkewski, says they’re finding themselves in the same boat as our two hockey teams.
“It’s not a situation unique to us in these times but we’re definitely still looking for some beds for our players for the summer and looking for some of those wonderful people around Kamloops to come forward and offer to be a part of this inaugural season and host some of our players for the summer,” he said.
“We’re putting that call out again seeing who might be available to step up and help out. We’re definitely part of the way there and there’s certainly more work to be done before the guys get up here in about a month.”
Asked what the benefits are to being a billet family, Shinkewski said the biggest ones cannot be measured in dollars and cents.
“The big one, like anything, whatever sport, tournament anything is that relationship you’re going to form. That’s the big one,” he said.
“We want people stepping forward for the right reasons of course and we’re hoping some of these guys coming up are potentially future major leaguers and there’s some lifelong relationships with that host family situation.”
Still, families do get some help to cover their costs.
“There is going to be a grocery stipend provided. So, we’re going to help with some food for the players at the home and some season tickets as well for people stepping forward,” he said.
“There’ll be some reciprocals throughout the season. Towards that last series we’ll have that host family appreciation night and have some behind the scenes things that we can open up to people.”
He says each player is as different as the host families.
“It’s all a unique situation too, right? Everybody’s got a slightly different approach and we’ll work with that as well. I think we lean on that relationship building and particularly those families with some kids playing ball that might have a good role model,” Shinkewski added.
“Don’t forget these are all guys pursuing a post secondary education, I’ve had a chance to meet some of them, there’s some pretty classy young men and a lot of them are going to be that early 20’s age so a little bit of maturity and we’re looking at role models for some our younger kids in the community as well.”
If you’d like to become a billet family, all the information is on the team’s website
