A pilot program by the North Okanagan, Salmon Arm and Revelstoke minor hockey associations gave reason to celebrate the north.
At the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association (OMAHA) General Meeting held on Sat. May 24th, Revelstoke, Sicamous, North Okanagan and Salmon Arm minor hockey associations were the co-recipients of the Association of the Year Award for 2024-25. The award was in recognition of the associations' U15 Fear the North Rep pilot program.
Announced in August 2024, the program was a collaboration to form U15 Rep teams at the Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 levels, in an effort to provide more opportunities, and a level of hockey suitable for all players in the participating associations and the region. Salmon Arm hosted Tier 2 as the Silverbacks, North Okanagan hosted Tier 3 as the Knights and Sicamous hosted Tier 4 as the Eagles.
"Players had the opportunity to try out for the tier 2 team and if not successful, could continue to try out for the tier 3 or tier 4 team. The 2024-25 season started with Salmon Arm, Armstrong and Sicamous as the respective home teams for each tier," said the Salmon Arm Minor Hockey Association in a media release.
The Salmon Arm team just missed out on going to the Tier 2 provincials, while North Okanagan team headed to Cranbrook for the U15 T3 championships, and
Sicamous earned the right to represent OMAHA at the Tier 4 for provincials in Kitimat.
With the success of Fear the North, OMAHA, in conjunction with BC Hockey, agreed to pilot the concept across the region, with plans to run it across the province for the 2026-2027 season. The program is also being expanded to to include U15, as well as the U13 and U18 age groups this season. The local Fear the North minor hockey associations will become thee Upper North Zone.
The Fear the North program was launched in response to concerns with BC Hockey moving to an "open-border system," that allowed any player from any association to go anywhere they chose to play competitive hockey. According to SAMHA and the Fear the North committee, most players chose to go and play in the larger centres, creating "super teams" that left smaller associations "much less competitive, or completely without a team." The Fear the North pilot was launched in part to prove a regional concept would be more beneficial than an open-border concept.
