Billeting brings the team together with the community, and provides a home away from home for the North Stars players. (submitted photo/Jeremy Pethick)

By Martin Martinson

A rewarding experience

North Stars seeking billets for 2020-21 season

Aug 20, 2020 | 12:52 PM

Hockey games may be won and lost on the ice, but the lifeblood of a successful organization comes from a strong central bond between team and community.

The Battlefords North Stars are looking for billet families ahead of the fall hockey season.

Billet coordinator with the North Stars, Kyle Kellgren said finding a welcoming home away from home for the players is of utmost importance to the team.

“Families send their young men here to play hockey from all over the country and some from the States, so it’s imperative to have good family homes that these kids can go to, where they can be comfortable,” Kellgren said. “A place where they can get along and have a great place to stay while they try to live their dream of playing hockey.”

Pictured left to right: The Pethick/WIlliams family & Parker Rey, Hunter Rambow (submitted photo/Jeremy Pethick); Kent and Kara Rosen and Tyler Wake (Facebook/SJHL); The families and billet family of Noah Form, Cody Spagrud and Kaden Boser (submitted photo/Jacqueline Reynolds); Kent and Kara Rosen with Joel Grzybowski, Austin Shumanski and MacGregor Sinclair (Facebook/SJHL); Dylan McCabe with his billet brother and sister (Jennifer Whyte); Sherry Just with Adam Dmyterko and Ryan Granville. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

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Jacqueline Reynolds and her family are heading into their seventh season billeting for the Stars. She said while they weren’t exactly sure what to expect when they first got involved, looking back now it’s hard to imagine a hockey season without an additional member of the family, or two.

“It was an incredible experience for every single person in our family,” Reynolds said. “We loved it so much that we were hooked. We started the first year with one player, and then after that we renovated two rooms in our house to make them into bedrooms and took in two from there.”

Reynolds said one of the most rewarding parts about the experience is just seeing the growth of a player over several years with the team.

“They may walk in as a stranger into your house, and you may have never met these boys before, but I truly believe there are two transformations that happen with the whole billeting experience,” Reynolds said. “They come to our house as strangers and they leave as family, and a lot of times they come as boys and leave as men.”

Another long-time billet family with the North Stars, Jeremy Pethick and Dani Williams, have welcomed a number of players into their home over the last seven years, heading into their eighth this season.

Pethick told battlefordsNOW that opening their home to a Stars’ player is something both they and their two children, look forward to with anticipation heading into the fall each year.

“It’s hard to describe, Pethick said. “Some people don’t understand how we can just open our door like that [to a stranger] but we look forward to it every year… It’s an unreal experience and there’s just no other way to put it.”

Those interested in learning more about billeting for the North Stars are asked to contact the team office at 306-445-7827.

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1