The BMHA will change the name of its three AA hockey teams from Battlefords Barons to Northwest Stars to fit with their regional base and correspond with their AAA and junior programs. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

Minor Hockey News

BMHA change AA program name from Barons to Northwest Stars

Jul 28, 2020 | 2:36 PM

The Battlefords Minor Hockey Association (BMHA) has announced a change to the name of the three teams in their AA program.

The change will affect only the Peewee AA, Bantam AA and Midget AA teams, which will see their names changed from the ‘Battlefords AA Barons’ to the ‘Northwest AA Stars.’

All other BMHA teams, including provincial teams, will remain the Barons.

President of the BMHA, Kyle Kellgren said the organization had been considering a name change to the Northwest something for some time, with ‘Northwest Stars’ making sense as a good fit for a variety of reasons.

“The Northwest Stars follows our AAA program and our junior program, and also we are a Northwest team, so that’s where the ‘Northwest’ comes from,” Kellgren said. “We’re based out of the Battlefords, but our region is northwest. We cover up North, [and around the region] a little bit, so we’re not just a Battleford team, we’re a northwest regional team.”

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Kellgren said while the decision to change the name was not made lightly, ultimately the vote from BMHA membership revealed the time was right to make the call.

“It was a very difficult decision, there’s a lot of history with the Barons and we understand that, [but] we are a regional team based out of the Battlefords and it’s also to make the smaller communities around feel a little more inclusive of it being a regional team,” Kellgren said of the decision. “All members of Battlefords Minor Hockey were able to vote and it came out that it wasn’t really that close and the choice was the Stars.”

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1