For the first time since the winter of 1951, Altona hockey fans will not be watching their favourite team play at Sunflower Gardens.
The Altona Maroons, a charter member of the Southeastern Manitoba Hockey League (SEMHL), will be taking a one-year leave of absence, ending a streak of 72 years of senior hockey in Altona.
President Byron Loeppky said there were a number of factors that led to the decision.
“The main issue is that over the last number of years, the team hasn’t had enough local players that have been able to compete at the level the league has risen to.”
Since the SEMHL expanded to 10 teams with the addition of the Ste. Anne Aces, Red River Wild, and Ile des Chenes Northstars in the fall of 2022, the Maroons have won just five of 36 games and finished in last place both seasons. This year the league has added another team from the Winnipeg area, Springfield, led by former NHL player Quinton Howden. Also competing are teams from Carman, Ile des Chenes, Morden, Notre Dame, Portage, Warren, and Winkler.
“You want to stay competitive,” Loeppky said. “It got to a point where we were playing primarily with local players, and we could see we weren’t going to be able to compete. This has been our reality for a long time. At some point it catches up, and it’s caught up to us unfortunately. We just couldn’t ice a competitive team this year.”
Consistency has also been a challenge.
“We generally would be able to fill up the roster with players who said they’d play five or six games a year, when what we needed was players who were committed to playing the season,” Loeppky said. “But we know even when that happens, players can get hurt, people have family events, they travel for business or recreation, so they’re not always available. You need to have the occasional game where everybody shows up, but unfortunately there were games where we’d show up with just eight or nine players, and you just can’t compete at this level with that many players.
“We need three lines of forward and three lines of defence that you can count on, week in and week out. And we just didn’t have that.”
Loeppky said they don’t see that changing anytime soon.
“When we talked to players that were graduating high school and maybe playing for a junior team somewhere, the question was would some of these players come back to play in Altona? Some started families, some would go to Winnipeg to go to school, some move out of province or country, and then you have the odd one who would consider playing, but you need not only the numbers, but you’d also need the capabilities and the abilities to play at this level,” he said. “And with the teams that have been added to the league in the last couple of years, particularly around the Winnipeg area, the caliber of play continues to rise, which means if you’re not getting better, you’re falling further behind.”
It may also be a sign of the times, Loeppky surmised.
“Hockey is a huge financial commitment and may not be the sport of choice for as many parents as it was years ago. There are more options now than there were in 1951. Back then, you either curled or played hockey. This is what the community did. And they watched hockey on Saturday night.”
Skipping this season was a tough decision for the executive, he said.
“It always hurts when something is lost. We had dads and grandparents who played on the Maroons. It’s a legacy team and we’re the only league who has been there from the beginning. We’ve had many ups and downs over the years, but we’re the only team that’s been able to navigate through it until now. That says a lot.”
The executive hopes to announce some exciting options in the coming months.
“We can lament the Maroons as we know them, but we still have lots to celebrate,” Loeppky said. “Something positive and good can come out of this situation.
“We’re focusing on the future of the team—and we think there is still a future—and we’re excited about that. We don’t think this is the end of the Altona Maroons. It might just look somewhat different in the future.”
