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TRINITY Western University’s Titans are part of a new era in B.C. university hockey.
New coach and general manager Dwayne Lowdermilk, a former professional hockey
player, said he is pleased to be part of a team and a league that has “great potential” and is “really going somewhere. We are bringing a whole new level of hockey into B.C.”
After playing in Langley’s Twin Rinks with maximum seating of only a few hundred, this year the team is
moving to the new 4,000-seat Langley Events Centre.
TWU has had a team for over three decades. Since 1989, its teams have mostly
played in a variety of church and informal leagues.
Things changed in 2005–2006, when TWU was one of five founding members of the B.C. Intercollegiate
Hockey League. Since then, TWU has hosted the championship each year, winning
itself in 2005-006.
The league expanded to seven teams last year, and may add others. The players
have also been steadily improving.
The new league is an alternative to junior hockey and American university
leagues. It gives young players a chance to develop hockey skills while
pursuing an education. The league, said Lowdermilk, is designed to “help kids stay in Canada and go to school.”
With a mix of minor hockey league graduates and former junior players,
Lowdermilk promises his team will provide “an exciting, wide open, creative brand of hockey.”
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This offers the opportunity to develop both financial and community support.
The Titans are selling season’s tickets for three exhibition and 12 home games for only $15 ($5 a game), which
is very affordable compared to other local options. If the Titans managed to
fill the Langley Events Centre, it could provide considerable revenue to cover
expenses and even some scholarships.
Lowdermilk is also working to set up an exhibition game November 6 against a
team of Vancouver Canucks alumni, to raise more money for scholarships. – Jim Coggins
September 2009
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