Hockey players skated onto the Pearkes Arena ice for the 53rd consecutive season on Friday night. But, for the first time, the home Saanich team was not wearing the familiar black, white and red colours and Braves logo on the front of the jersey.
The renamed Saanich Predators, in their new San Jose Sharks-tinged livery, made their debut in a Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League game against the Kerry Park Islanders.
The Saanich club announced its new name last month as part of a wave of change across North American sports moving away from team names that are regarded as disrespectful to First Nations. The new logo and colour scheme, however, was not unveiled until Friday night.
“We explored a lot of options for the logo and the orca came out on top every time. It’s a connection to where we play,” said Saanich team co-owners Norm Kelly and Ed Geric.
The season-opening game against Kerry Park was in progress at press time.
Predators beat out Squid and Defenders — the second and third choices — following a public submissions process via social media, Kelly said.
The Saanich team’s former name was less flagrant than most associated with First Nations. Braves in popular culture is thought to mean young warriors much in the way Vikings is used as a team name denoting Norse warriors. Kelly said he had consulted several times previously with Island First Nations leaders about the Braves name and none he talked to were against its use. But he and Geric believe the “times are very different now.”
Kelly said there was a notable contingent of submissions in the club’s rename-the team entries that wanted the Braves name retained. But that name is now from another era. He’s more than happy with the decision to change. “We’re very excited to start playing under our new banner,” Kelly said.
The Saanich VIJHL team — whose alumni includes NHLers Matt Irwin and Adam Cracknell — had been named the Braves since 1967, when Pearkes Arena opened. The team announced it would drop the Braves name in July. (The wider Saanich Minor Hockey Association also used the name Braves before amalgamating with the Victoria Minor Hockey Association last year under the Admirals name).
The issue became part of a larger conversation across North American sports with pro team names, such as the Edmonton Eskimos and Washington Redskins, dropped and the extant Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves being challenged. Locally, it follows the change several years ago of Belmont Secondary School’s team names from Braves to Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, the nine-team VIJHL — which has produced NHLers Jamie and Jordie Benn, Irwin, Cracknell, Ryan O’Byrne, several AHL and ECHL pros and numerous BCHL and WHL juniors — has begun its season under pandemic protocols.
The provincial Phase 3 of the return to sports allows for team versus-team league play on a regional basis in cohorts of up to four teams. Quarantine breaks are required before the teams can rotate into new cohorts of up to four teams.
There are five teams in the South Division of the VIJHL. As a result, the Peninsula Panthers and Victoria Cougars are in one cohort and start the VIJHL season with eight games against each other. The marathon began with a 6-3 Cougars win Thursday at the Archie Browning Sports Centre and continues tonight at the Panorama Rec Centre.
Saanich, Kerry Park and Westshore Wolves are in the other South Division cohort and are playing only each other to start the season. There are four teams in the North Division, so the Nanaimo Buccaneers, Oceanside Generals, Campbell River Storm and Comox Valley Glacier Kings fit handily into a single cohort. That began with a 9-1 Oceanside victory over Nanaimo on Thursday.