Vernon Vipers navigate rest of BCHL season with heavy hearts
There may not be a better team in the BCHL than the Vernon Vipers. There can’t be one dealing with more hardship right now.
Vipers owner Duncan Wray died in his sleep Jan. 11. It was his 68th birthday.
Wray bought the franchise from Mel Lis in 1992 and under his watch the Vipers won four Royal Bank Cup national titles and six Fred Page Cup BCHL championships.
This Vipers group is meeting those high expectations. Vernon (29-12-1-4) has the second-best record in the BCHL, just percentage points behind the Penticton Vees (29-9-2-3) and one point up on the Wenatchee Wild (29-12-3-1).
You can only imagine how difficult the past couple of weeks have been, though.
“The kids aren’t the same. They don’t know how to react,” Vernon head coach Mark Ferner said. “Our practices aren’t quite the same. We had been a group that liked to have fun. It’s not happening quite yet. We’re just going to have to take little steps and try to get to our new normal.
“We have a very good leadership group on this team. We have some players who have been here for a while. The problem, of course, is that they are the ones who knew Duncan the best. They are the ones who have been hit the hardest.”
On Jan. 6, the Vipers had a reunion of sorts when they returned to Civic Arena for one final game. The franchise’s home before moving to Kal Tire Place in the 2001-02 season, the Civic is slated to be demolished this year.
The building opened in 1938 and the Vipers’ contest against the Prince George Spruce Kings also commemorated the 80th anniversary of the first game played there, a Jan. 6, 1938, exhibition between the Vancouver Lions and the Spokane Clippers.
Vipers players wore special retro jerseys and even used wooden sticks in the warmup as a tribute to that.
Former Vernon stars such as Brent Gilchrist and Aaron Volpatti were among those on hand in the jam-packed crowd of 2,380 and Ferner said Wray was in his glory, even with the 3-2 loss to Prince George.
“Duncan had more memories in that building than anybody,” Ferner said of Wray, a retired oral surgeon. “It was a great weekend and the people who put it on did a great job.
“He was one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. He never spoke poorly of anyone and no one ever spoke poorly of him. He loved his family. He loved the community. And he loved the hockey team. It was his passion. It never grew old with him. He would come travel on the bus with us, he would come to practice, he would be in the dressing room.
“I don’t think there’s a manual that tells you how to deal with this. Everybody will have their own way.”
Wray was the chairman of the league’s board of directors at the time of his death. He also served as chairman from 1999-2006 before resuming the role in 2011. He was inducted into the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011. The 1998-99 Vipers, who won the RBC Cup, received the same honour in 2016.
The Wray family released this statement after his death: “Duncan was a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend to those that knew him. His loss leaves a huge hole in our hearts and he will be greatly missed. The unexpected news has come as a devastating blow and although the family is grateful for all the kind messages of sympathy, we ask that we can be left to grieve in private at this very difficult and sad time for us.”