Spot Light on....The Bandits

Spot Light on visits with a team who rose from the ashes of several teams. These hockey vagabonds feel they are on their way to the top...the Banditos


Team History?
Well for the team history I guess it would have to start with the infamous 2 pucks for Perry trade between the then Silver Bullets and the Hurricanes. Up to that point the Hurricanes started the season blowing teams away. But then the team started coming apart about week 5, and were struggling to even field a complete team, and having to use subs from other teams. At which point Greg Perry moved from the Bullets to the Hurricanes. The team continued to struggle through the remainder of the season. Then with a couple games left in the season, four of the players Perry, Melinda Beall, Kyle Saylor and Jeff Neil were leaving a practice and stopped to talk out side NYTEX's and decided they wanted to continue playing together. Greg volunteered to coordinate the team, they discussed a team name and logo design and the Bandits were born.

Then Greg and Melinda began the task of filling the roster (Kyle was moved up to the Silver league, and Jeff ended up not returning). They brought in players from the Mid-Air Collision team and friends to fill that first season roster.


For the second season most of the players had enjoyed playing together and wanted to return. Some had other commitments and were going to take a season or so off. So then team picked up a few more players some from the former Ice Kings team. These guys helped solidify the team’s defense and we added a few new guys to help with the scoring. So the team went from 1-9 to 6-5-1, winning a playoff game and almost making it to the finals. And this next season looks to be even better.


Team Philosophy?
“Keep Your Feet Moving!!!” that’s the one command being yelled on the bench constantly. But seriously as a team we’ve tried to continually improve with each game and play a good clean game.


Dud to Stud Award?
Dud the Stud award well I’d have to give out two, for two different reasons. The first one would have to go to Melinda Beall, for Most improved, she has improved so much over the past 2 season to where she’s used in all aspects of the game, full strength, power plays and short handed. The other one would go to Joe Friesen. In his first season, he always seems to be in the middle of the play. He’s digging in the corners for pucks and in front of the net looking for rebounds. And in his first season he was even voted to the All-Star game by his team mates.

You've got one bottle of fabreeze to give out, who gets it?
As for the giving away the bottle of fabreeze, I think I’d just keep it for myself. I usually one of the first to show up for the games and have you smelled those locker rooms in the evenings. We showed up for one game and found out we couldn’t get into our locker room, The Arizona Sundogs of the CHL had some of their gear laid out in it. After they came in and moved their gear into the visitor’s locker room we were allowed in. Well, let me tell you, we needed that bottle of fabreeze that evening.

Most Vocal on the Bench?
Out of all the questions this one's the easiest, if you've play against us, there's no doubt you've heard him. It would have to be hands down, our bench coach Bill Ivey.

Team High Point?
The teams’ high point I would have to say was our first win. In our first season as the Bandits we were 0-9 going into our last game of the season. Now we were steadily improving over the course of the season. And to finally win our last game of the season, well that would have to be the team’s high point thus far. The other high point would be beating the Senators for our first playoff win, only after they had beaten us only 4 days earlier pretty easily.

Team Low Point?
With the team only going into our 3 session we haven’t really had a low point, so if I had to come up with something I guess it was have to be losing to the Jets in the Semi-Final game this past season. We just had a bad game all around.

We Love to face off against?
We love to face off against just about anyone. When playing, we simply try and play our game no matter what the score is. We just simply try and improve with each game win or lose.

Biggest Rivalry?
I would have to say our biggest rivalry would have to be the Silver Bullets/Jets. It started with the Perry trade and has been a fun rivalry ever since.


Why we'll win the keg this next season?
Like I mentioned before, the first season we went 1-9. And the second we improved to 6-5-1, and we were one win away from playing in the finals. Well this season we have a couple players returning from the first season, a couple of our subs want to play full time and we picked up a couple more that looks to improve the team over all. And if we keep with our team philosophy and continually improve, well the next step would be the finals and hoisting the Keg.