Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #155 - Nigel Dube Lloydminster Bobcats

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

On today's episode Head Coach & GM of the Lloydminster Bobcats hopped on to discuss the AJHL return to play and how Lloydminster's position on the border is causing havoc on their return to play.   Let me know what you think Text me! 587-217-8500

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Give way Gartner a call. 780, 808, 50, 25. You head in to any of these businesses, you let them know, you heard about them on the podcast, all right? Now, let's get on to that T-Barr-1 tale of the tape. Originally from Lampman, Saskatchewan, he was the assistant coach for the mine-out minotauras. assistant coach for the Camrose Codiacs, and he's been in Lloyd Minster since the 2018-19 season, currently in his third season as the head coach and GM of the Lloyd-Mister Bobcats.

I'm talking about Nigel Dube. So buckle up, here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by head coach and GM of Lloyd Bobcats, Nigel Dubet. So first off, thanks for hopping on. Oh, thanks for having you, Sean. You're starting to become, I was looking back. It was August 28th.

your first full season, you were episode 31, and then in September again, you hopped on for episode 118 and here you are at 155. So you're becoming a recurrent guest, which is cool. I wish it was under better circumstances. Yeah, hopefully moving forward, we can find some that we're talking about more positive things than where we're at today. I mean, it just seems to never end with COVID, doesn't it? You get one positive and then it's just like a little dance. you take one step forward, a couple back again.

Yeah, and the craziest part to think we're, you know, a year into this beast. And, you know, it's just been working on things, working on things, working on things. And I don't know if it's ever really went smoothly for many days in a row before trying to address something else. And at the end of the day, you know, what, it is a pandemic and COVID is here. But I don't think anybody ever wants to get used to that. Oh, and I mean, you guys, I'm sure you're going to talk about this. but in order to get back and play, it's not like you get to have full building, guys can just go do whatever they want.

Like in order to get back and have a return to play with the AGH, you guys are going to be on some pretty strict rules, even just play a shortened season between, what, is it, March and May? Yeah. Well, that was the thing that the return to play set out was an isolation at your home, come into the community, get tested, go for another isolation for seven more days, get tested again, need the negative test back before starting team activity, and then test it weekly after that, with including, you know, increased sanitation again, increased protocols,

nobody in the rink, two teams playing each other in an empty rink, you know, and then everything around there that tightened everything up a lot to give the opportunity to play through May. Well, and if people haven't, well, A, that's a lot, right? Like right there, that's a lot, right? To ask a, well, you guys aren't the NHL. I don't think anybody has to to think about it any further than that. Like, even the WHL is going to struggle with no fans in the building. The NHL is. They're struggling. So to AJHL to get to a point where you could feasibly bring it back, I abide by the guidelines, and still make a go of it for a few months to give, I always think, you know, you're a junior hockey player. I'm a junior.

My heart bleeds for the 20-year-olds, man, that are sitting there, going the highs and lows. We're going back. We're not coming back. We're going back. We're not coming back. Yeah. Well, and the phrase I think next week may never be used again in the terms because, you know, from the shutdown as well next week, next week, next week, next week and a week turns to a month. And, you know, our 20-year-olds here, even the acquisitions that we made there right before or right after leading up to the return to play, you know, for us to bring in some guys, fill out the roster, set things up for our 20-year-olds to have success. And a lot of guys didn't go with the 20-year-olds because the development model of the season.

But, you know, like you look at Gunner-Kinnberg for us, he's our captain, and we talk about turning the culture around, and he might be the main piece of that. And you want to create an opportunity for him so that he can create success on the ice to set him up for next year. And a lot of excitement talking to him, you know, leading into the return to play, and then get on the call and be like, hey, you know, you know, know, we're not going right now. Yeah, you're heartbroken as a coach to have to make that call.

Yeah, that's, that's frustrating. Maybe for myself, I know when I saw the, uh, it all over Twitter, it's like, oh man, that's, you know, being from the border city, we certainly understand, uh, we've had to, you're not the first one to deal with funny things that come on being half on Saskatchew and half Alberta, but maybe walk us through what exactly is going on right now, Nigel. So people can have a little bit of an idea of what has happened because, I mean, obviously it announced AJL's coming back. And then the next big announcement was the Bobcats aren't going to be a part of it. And you're right in the middle of it.

So maybe give us a picture of what's been going on. Well, we go back to the fall, Sean. And in the fall there, we started out our season in Kit Scottie. We went out there because the Saskatchewan restrictions were different than Alberta. October 16th, we played Sherwood Park in Kit Scottie. and that was our last day out there. And then Saskatchewan moved because games started in Saskatchewan so games could be played in Lloyd Minster,

though they were already being played in Alberta. So October 17th, we moved into the Civic again. We got going through there into November. And that was about the same point that, you know, minor hockey was allowed to follow hockey Alberta. We were allowed to follow the AJHL. Then we got to the end of November when everything went back into a shutdown pretty much across

Western Canada, I think, for the most part. Restrictions were a little bit different in Alberta versus Saskatchewan. And then over the course, pretty much since the new year, you know, with our league working on the return to play, moving that forward to Alberta Health Services, we were sending that off to the city of Lloyd Minster, who then worked with the Saskatchewan government and the Ministry of Health along those lines. And of course, everything was promising, looking really good, a lot of optimism. And then on Tuesday it was pretty much our housing didn't work.

Our billeting didn't work. Couldn't use billets. It's needed to create a bubble for our players like Saskatchewan Western Hockey League had to form. And that was all based on Saskatchewan. And, you know, that was a common question of, you know, I got a text this morning that was, I thought you were Alberta because you don't have to pay provincial sales tax. It was from one of my older coaches. And I said, isn't that wild?

Like, we don't have to pay provincial sales tax. for Alberta, but we're following the whole city is following the Saskatchewan government, and that's where it left us. So we worked around the clock to try and make something that worked for the Saskatchewan Ministry Health and the Saskatchewan government. And every time it felt like we got to somewhere and checked the box, they put another box at the bottom of the list that we had to try and figure out. And Thursday morning there, they just said, whatever we have, we can't let you go.

It's not going to work. you know i think of through the last year there's been certain things that being in lloyd has been very beneficial for i think of some of the restaurants that got to stay open and meanwhile if you drove you know 20 minutes down the road half an hour down the road to vermilion uh they were under stricter guidelines right no in in dining and here we sit and you got every team in the league can go back to play how many guys even live on the sass side nydra well we have we would have two. Two.

That would have been our number. That would have been our number two. But they're not going to care because it doesn't matter where your house is. It matters that Lloyd Minster is governed by Saskatchewan Health Authority. Yeah. Yeah. And I have to say, Sean, like we're very thankful on that side of Saskatchewan. And our sponsors have been able to keep their doors open, restaurants, businesses and all that.

So we don't want to take away from that part of the Saskatchewan. And that's kind of the balancing act. But when it comes to the housing, that was a big thing. Like, we're not even in Saskatchewan. Many questions were asked too. Like, why can't you go to Kit Scottie? Why can't you go outside of town and be outside of town? Well, at the end of the day, we couldn't come back into Lloyd Minster.

They wouldn't even allow us to bring our players in at any, you know, Friday was when they were supposed to come get tested. And they just said, nope, you can't bring them in that even. You can't bring them in. Can't bring them in where? In Deloid, into our bill at homes. So the only way we would have been able to do it was a full bubble. You know, we worked out with the college. They would have been in the college and the spin wheels.

They would have had their own room, no shared spaces, no common areas, nothing like that. Meals would have had to have been catered in, individually wrapped. For them to go to from Lakeland to the rink, or from the college to the rink at the time, they couldn't even carpool over in the vehicles. We needed to have team transportation, which puts them over there. And that was the only two places they could go. So our office, which is in the Alberta side, has a gym in it, all that kind of stuff, good spacing.

We couldn't use that. You know, and that's kind of the things that the obstacles, the hurdles, whatever you may want to look at it that we were trying to get through. Well, I'm glad you're on my podcast because you can't say it, but I'm going to say it. The more you talk tomorrow, I go, man, that is bad shit crazy, that you could go to all the lengths of. getting COVID test on weekly. I mean, just no fans in the building.

Keep them isolated, minus their immediate household. And that still isn't good enough. That's pretty crazy. That's pretty telling of where we're at right now, to be completely honest. And I know you can't say too much, but nobody's going to find me because I look at it and I go like, as you talk more, I go like, oh, my head hurts, right? Like, you think, like, all these kids, all they want to do is just. play a little bit of hockey. And I know somebody's sitting out there going, yeah, but we're in the

middle of a pandemic. And there's more important things in hockey. It's like, well, yeah, sure, true. But like, when you're willing to go to such lengths to ensure that they are safe, only get told, no, because you're sitting right where you are. God, that's a, that's a crux of the old border, isn't it? Like, you're so close. Well, and it's just, I never thought moving here two years ago, moving to a border city and, you know, talking to the mayor the other day, our motto is border city built. And I said that's, that's magnified in this whole, whole situation on the idea of being border city built right now and, and what that brings with it. I would have never thought, I would have never thought that this is where it would be at. Now, I listened to you and

Kurt Price. I thought, uh, good old Kurt, Kurt, Kurt's so like, uh, he's a vet of the old industry. And I thought, uh, one of the things that came out of YouTube talking is you said, you're in talks with 16 communities. Is that still going on? Yeah, we're still in talks here. And even this morning, we're trying to work things out. Everything would have to be approved by Alberta Health Services and by the H.L. But still working across Alberta, try and find a community where we would pretty much have to lift everything up, move it there, find billet homes or find housing for all of our players, you know, pretty much set up everything right there, begin there. So the support's been been unbelievable here in the last, you know, a few days since it came out.

Yesterday I had a parent that their son had played on another team, reached out, you know, had an idea and said, you know, I don't know if you're listening to ideas. I said, well, I'll listen to whatever you have. And they went to work. And, you know, I got a call back later yesterday that said, well, there's a lot of red tape and even trying to get into communities and stuff. And they apologize because they couldn't get anywhere past stage one. but we're in some, you know, some communities here where we're in discussion right now where the community is on board, but there's, again, a lot of boxes that we have to check from the requirements of Alberta Health Services and also the requirements of the league

to be housed there. But we're trying to do everything we can here to give our guys, you know, whether a 20-year-old or a 17-year-old, an opportunity to play in our league that's going to start up here. So in other words, what you're talking about doing is I'm just going to pick on some towns that are relatively close. You're talking about moving the entire team to save Vermillion, Wainwright, Kid Scotty, somewhere with the rink, and then the facilities available to essentially uproot not only 20-some kids, but then your coaching staff would have to move because they wouldn't want you coming out of Lloyd to go to said town, probably your training

staff. Oh, man, that is not a small endeavor, is it? No, it's not. And again, hockey world's small. The support's been unbelievable in trying the efforts to go into here is from everybody, people that don't know our players, people that don't know an organization, but want to give kids the opportunity. I think that's the big thing. But yeah, you're looking at everything across the board.

And then the other part is to try and find a facility that's going to keep the ice until the end of May. So we had a few that were really interested right out of the gate. But, you know, ice would be coming out at the end of April. And our ice rental through May. wouldn't be significant enough. And of course, you go back to the dollars and cents of junior hockey to keep a, you know, a facility open and running for a whole month

in the warmer times of Alberta isn't cheap and isn't something that, you know, we have the extra for right now. Here's probably a crazy idea because they're not playing yet. But since you're stuck as a Saskatchewan team, and I put that in parentheses, have you reached out to the SJHL at all? Well, that's something I've talked to the GMs there to see what's going on and where they're getting to

because in my meetings with the SAS government, that came up a lot of the SJHL. You know, the SJHL is looking to do this and the Western Hockey League's bubbled. And the SjhL is looking, you know, you see the interviews across there of what they're trying to do. And, you know, for us to go and do that, you know, it sounds like some of the teams there are just, it's not going to work for them or whatever. is happening. But then you get to a hockey Canada level, you know, the sanction stuff that goes into the potential of that.

It just becomes a nightmare on top of what has already seemed to be. Yeah, I kind of figured as much. I just right now, if I'm thinking about it, you're not worried about winning the Royal Bank Cup. You're worried about finding ways to give your kids, especially the 20-year-olds, but that I would say all the kids, right, the ability to play some hockey. further their career, but just to have a bit of a season because, you know,

no fan's going to get to watch it unless it's online, that kind of thing. And so if they're saying your Saskatchewan team, you wonder if they're, you just wonder why they can't, and I know it's way more complicated than this. They just can't sign an amendment that says you can go play with the SaaS teams in a bubble for a month. And because that's all it is for them too, right? Like, I mean, at this point, it's not like Lloyd Minster wasn't a part of the SJ at one point. the Lancers were what,

1982 to 1988. They were once right there. I mean, not saying you want to go down that, that'll open up a whole different rabbit hole. I just go like, if it's about playing some hockey, man,

uprooting the entire team faculty to go to, man, obviously the rigs in little towns in Alberta, that would probably house you. Now Irma comes to mind because they're a nice little spot too. But then to have billets and everybody take care of you,

man, that's a huge undertaking. No different if you went and played the other way. And I guess you've probably been sitting there in what day in, in isolation now, Nigel, how many days? Well, this is, this is, this is would be eight, the eighth day for us or the ninth, no, ninth day now. Friday was the seventh, eighth, this is our ninth day. So our players are still committed to it. So, uh, we're, we're day nine here. And, and, um, you know, once, once we get past this again, it's, it's, uh, you know, trying to get the approval from Alberta health and by our league to those days add up. And, and, um, you know, at some point here,

we're going to have to see. But I'm meeting here to try and see where we're at. I know building. We're almost halfway there in billets in one community. And that's a long stretch because these people have never billed it before. I've never really seen billeting. But the love that they have for hockey and taking somebody. That's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool. Well, what can, if anyone is listening to this, it comes out tomorrow. So, I mean, it'll be, what will that be March 1st, March 1st tomorrow? Or today, if you're listening to this, I guess. if there's companies out there, if there's people out there that want to get a hold of you, want to find ways to help, have ideas on maybe some things that could maybe move you forward. Is there any way that people can reach out and help? And if so, what are the ideas you're hoping to tackle?

Well, if they want to reach out, you know, email or people have pulled my phone number off of our team website there and just gave me a direct call. And, you know, some have made calls around. whether it be to their mayor or whether it be to a community member or to a team that, you know, has already been shut down from Hockey, Alberta, whatever level they may be at, and just reach out and see what's what they have going on there. And, you know, like I said, the big ones the ice and keeping the ice until the end of May. That's probably the biggest before we get to the second stage.

But, you know, if there's some housing communities and we've talked to a couple of junior B communities about their ability and programs and stuff. And if anybody's got ideas, I listen to all of them. So, yeah, just reach out, give me an email and give me a shout. Yeah, I assume you've already thought of all of these things. But you mentioned Lakeland College here in Lloyd, but by staying in Lloyd, that keeps you in Lloyd, which causes problems. Have you gone so far, and I'm spitballing here as we go along?

But I assume you've done the same thing in Vermillion then as well at Lakeland College is there? Yeah, it's the same connecting body on the governing body on the school there. But I went and I've reached out to, you know, one that a place north of Edmonton that could house us, feed us and everything like that. But the bill that came across that per month was just over 51,000 bucks for players and players. So we're looking at 153,000 just for room and board there before we step on the ice before we do that. And, you know, we talk about nobody in the stands and nobody going up. on in a good year, let alone

any time you have that. And, you know, our revenue stream wouldn't be there to even come close to that. You are getting to be a part of the 50, no, 50-50 that they're doing though with the dub and the AGHL. Is that going to come to you guys? Yeah, the jackpots for junior, you know, we sarcastically kind of joked about if, you know,

we didn't receive the Saskatchewan funding, but Saskatchewan government shot us down. So we're hopeful that we do qualify calling Young. You know, I spoke to the idea that we didn't receive the SJHL money. And, you know, we're in all the meetings and stuff with the Jack Pots for junior hockey. So we're hopeful for that. Yeah, hopefully that can help lend a hand at least. It's pretty crazy.

I know when Kurt brought it up with you, when you sat with them, and both Saskatchewan government, not allowing you to get any. of that money, but then doing what they're doing now, it's like, oh, man, the hypocrisy is is pretty tough, isn't it? Yeah, well, it's just, it's frustrating. It's, you know, it breaks a person's heart for our players and, again, understanding what's going on around us, but just, you know, we're going to have to sit back right now and watch our league that we're a part of start up here on the return to play that was approved. You know, that our office, we talked about this Sean like our office or billets everything's in alberta you know the service sports

center which we even talked to the city about hey we'll move there if that it means being in Alberta when the civics you know 150 feet from the border but the the whole idea that the city of lloyd minsters under saskatchewan but yeah it's just disheartening um to kind of go through this and put the long days in here and we feel like we're we're trying to climb a pretty slippery high hill the lines on a man map. Like, I mean, and you can't even distinguish the dot from the line. That's how close it is. That's tough. Well, I feel for you. And if there's anything we can do or listeners can do, or if anyone has some good ideas, because I'm sure there's some good ideas out there,

you've probably explored 90% of them. I know you'd even talked about the Bible camp to the North Alloyd trying to figure a way to make that work. So you've explored, some and exhausted a lot of options. Well, we looked at the, the Bible Camp Pleasant View out there and again, trying to get that place fired up in a real quick turnaround. And then some of the requirements that they wanted with bringing in professional cleaners on the weekly and having a chef and having all that.

We looked at the idea of living quarters like rig shacks, where everybody would have their own room and moving those in and pretty much creating our own community. and setting things up where we bring in fresh water and we do all that that creates a bubble, you know, and to go from there and point them in hotels, we looked at hotels because then they were in individual rooms. You know, you try and rent hotels, whether you get a weekly rate or a monthly rate for three months and we're looking at 80 plus days of some kind of bubble, you're up over

80,000 plus just before you put a meal and you have breakfast in, you even a, if it's just serial. And that was the tough part with trying to sort through this to come to an agreement with the Saskatchewan government and then the Ministry of Health was the idea that we're an extended season from March till May. We're not the Western Hockey League bubble where it's a short six to eight week turnaround. You know, we're a 12 week. And the SJ and the options they've looked at is we're an extended time period.

And that's the same thing. If we've created a bubble, whether it be any of those options. our players outside of being at the rink, when they go back to that, they just have to stay in their room. And then mental health comes into that. Well, how do I tell, you know, a 16 to 21-year-old that for eight hours to 10 hours outside of the four that we're at the rink, you just have to be in your room. So there's no intermingling. There's no common spaces. There's nothing like that. You just go to your room. That's all it would be live in a bubble where, you know, you can put an Xbox, you can put a big TV in front of kids at the end of the day,

they're kids, and try and do that for three plus months. You know, we're in isolation here on day nine, and I've shoveled my driveway with a little snow that we get and shovel it and go back and walk in my backyard and try and get out, try and get moving. You know,

I would struggle for three months to just go back to the room, and that's what I would have to do. I would have to go back, I've been in my room. We would have to do all of our calls over Zoom and do all that. And, you know, it's just, I think,

it just came completely unrealistic. You're making my head hurt. That's like all the tape you got to jump through. Yeah. I mean, I'm curious. What do the other teams and the AJ have to do abide by? Well, the return to play set out, where we're pretty much there at their bill at homes

into the rink and it's reduced. But they don't have to look at a complete bubble, right? So, you know, you can probably go and, make a sandwich in your kitchen and have supper with your billet family where we wouldn't have had that option if they were going outside. So, you know, from that standpoint, from the AJ's return to play, it's the billets are filling out the daily app and stuff like that. Players fill out the daily app and whatnot. But it was a whole new world, you know, in Saskatchewan. Well, I appreciate you coming on to talk a little bit about this.

I know you're probably getting hit up from multiple different people and your brain's probably going on. Lack of sleep and everything else is you try and exhaust every single option out there. As the community knows, Nigel, you're not a guy to sit back and not try and do things. So I appreciate you hopping on and sharing a little bit about this. I hope you guys can find a way to, I mean, when you put in this much time to just find, a way to play some hockey games. Like this is a new one and and once again being on the border city presents its challenges. I didn't think anyone would think this would be one of them. So I hope you find a way and if we got to call you the, I don't know, I'm going to throw it,

the Irma. I'll show some love to Irma, the Irma Bobcats for a season or for a few months. I think that'd be a cool way to see you guys suit up for a few more games. No, I appreciate you having on, Sean, and the support of this too and just getting the voice out there and understanding that, you know, it's not a, it's not a team decision. It's not a league decision. It's not an Alberta provincial decision. It's a Saskatchewan decision. And that's the big thing.

You know, and that's the tough part. And we appreciate the support that everybody has reached out and, you know, same thing, confused of the whole situation. And hopefully we can come to something here in the next day or two that we can get things sorted. And whether, you know, that's finding one community or other. to uplift and move to and be proud to represent Lloyd Minster in another city for a short period time. Cool.

Well, thanks again, Nigel, and all the best. Hopefully we get some good news or you hear some good news here soon. Yeah, thanks, Sean. Hey, folks, thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then, scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story.

The Sean Newman podcast available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time. Hey, Keeners. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. It was more, well, trying to just figure out what's going on with the Bobcats and the H.L. It just seems so honestly. Like I said, bat-trick crazy what's going on.

Like, I don't fucking get it. Like, if you're going to bring them back, let them play. And stop putting up so much goddamn reddish. tape on it like holy crap anyways that's what i'm here to talk about i gotta give a shout out to nathan brecker he uh helped me get andrew elbers uh from last week episode 153 the mlb pitcher from north battleford and he just said man love the podcast and if you uh if you haven't tuned back into that episode or you miss that episode i i suggest to go back a kid from north battleford who uh has played all over the place um

and just has a pretty unique story of his travels on being in and out and playing some good baseball, well, top level baseball, and then as far over as, you know, South Korea, Japan, that kind of thing. So pretty unique little journey. But I'll let you guys get on with your date if you're the champ. Probably sitting at work, giggling to himself. I suggest you get your feet off the table, get back to work, and we'll see you guys Wednesday.