Fare thee well

The article didn’t catch me off-guard, but it sure did leave me sad.

We’ve known for weeks now that the Springfield Spirit was no more. The Jr. “A” hockey team was staying in the North American Hockey League, but headed for Wasilla, Alaska. The vote that makes the move official took place recently and was unanimous. The ownership group will remain the same, apparently - including Grant Wistrom. The team is expected to be known as the Mat-Su Spirit.

I love this quote from Marty Brickey: “The Springfield Spirit is extremely excited to be moving to Wasilla ... we look forward to introducing our team to the fans.”

Just don’t get attached to them, guys.

The “Spirit” program - which came to Springfield as the St. Louis Sting - doesn’t have the best reputation, and with good reason. Coaching changes were frequent - a few coming midseason - and the locker room was apparently built with a revolving door. Nobody stayed around long and it looked like quite a few wanted out.

But it’s hard to say good riddance. As a hockey fan, I will miss having the Spirit around. There is a chance that junior hockey will return to the Ozarks at some point, perhaps in the Jr. “B” WSHL. In the meantime, this is a golden opportunity for the soon to be Missouri State University Bears.

There is no competition for dollars now. Corporate sponsors and fans who had to divide their dollars between the Spirit and Bears now have just one hockey option. If SMS, excuse me, Mo State works this right, it will be a major boom for their program.

They’re off to a good start signing WebSportsRadio.com to broadcast at least 28 of 33 regular-season games on the web. I likely won’t listen to it, but any publicity you can get for your team is great.

“The web site will be arranged so fans can go straight to the re-broadcast without knowing the outcome first,” Vice President and co-founder Dan Lee says in a press release on WSR’s web site. “We will also provide player rosters, profiles, pictures and stats that will add to the listening enjoyment during the game. There are a lot of advantages to doing a game via the net as opposed to radio, and we plan to bring as many as possible into play.”

Sounds intriguing.

A tentative schedule is also up on WSR’s web site. Exhibition games with SLU are set for Sept. 10 and 11. The first broadcast should be Saturday, Oct. 1 when Missouri State locks horns with Missouri in Jefferson City. I’ve never been on a Bears hockey road trip before. This one would be a good one to start on.

The regular season home opener is slated for Oct. 14 against McKendree College at 6:50 p.m. Home opponents of interest include Kansas Nov. 9-10 and a return visit from MissZoo Feb. 10-11.

Oh, and Marty. You seem like a nice guy, but that was a bad move not thanking the Springfield community for the support they've given the team the past few seasons. There are a lot of people who cheered for that team, billet families who opened up their doors to host players and sponsors who helped make this thing work. A lot of people in Springfield gave their spirit to this team. A "Thanks" on your way out the door would've been nice.


Next up for Briggs Stadium, tackling the new Missouri State logos - aka "What were they thinking?"