Navy Vets Out, Renegades In

Navy Vets out, Renegades in

By Cory Smith SPORTS REPORTER Friday April 27, 2007 WOODSTOCK - An era is over. For the first time in 42 years, the junior hockey team in Woodstock will not be known as the Navy Vets. Instead, team owner Bill McLeod said Thursday the team has submitted an application to the OHA changing its name to the Renegades. Pending expected approval, the move ends 41 years of association with the Oxford County Naval Veterans Association, which sponsored the team since its 1966-67 inception. "It’s a sad day when the Navy Vets name doesn’t appear with the junior hockey team," said Sam Keeping, one of the Navy Vets’ founders and the first team president. Keeping helped McLeod resuscitate the team after Steve Barber resigned late last season, but said Thursday his job was done once the Vets were eliminated from the playoffs.

"That’s the way he’s gonna go," Keeping said, "so that’s the way it’s gonna go." OCNVA president Art Caravan and Bryan Bucholtz, past president, did not return messages left by the Sentinel-Review, but McLeod said the split was an amicable one. The decision was made out of legal concerns after years of mismanagement, he said. "I tried to work my way around it," he added. "My full intention was to keep the Navy Vets name. We tried some ideas but it’s just best that I go away from it." The biggest change aside from the name will be the team’s colours and logo. The famed anchor is gone, and a new one is being refined, McLeod said. Traditional blue and white will be replaced by burgundy and black on the road, and burgundy and white at home, matching the seats at Southwood Arena. "It looks good with the arena," he said. "When you walk into the arena you can say, ‘Hey, that’s the Renegades’ arena.’" And the end of an era. Blue to burgundy Junior C Hockey

By Cory Smith SPORTS REPORTER Friday April 27, 2007 WOODSTOCK - Dave McLaren was a wide-eyed bantam when he first suited up for the Navy Vets. McLaren, just 14 years old at the time, played 10 games for the Vets in their inaugural 1966-67 season. Two years later, he was an integral part of Woodstock’s first - and only - Ontario Hockey Association Junior C championship. So it was with a heavy heart that McLaren, now the team’s general manager, learned of owner Bill McLeod’s decision to change the hockey club’s name to the Woodstock Renegades, ending 41 years of Navy Vet tradition. "I personally don’t like it," McLaren said. "I’m a bit of an old-school person that way." McLeod said Thursday he has already notified the league of the change, which will affect everything from the logo to the colours to the stationary. Nearly three months after taking control of the team, McLeod settled on the new name after a fan suggested he was a "renegade owner." "I thought, ‘That’s a great name,’" he said. "The way it’s been run the last six years, it has nothing to do with the Navy Club. There’s no hard feelings with them, and I believe it’s the other way around." On the advice of his lawyer and accountant, the London native and OCPS officer made the tough decision to move on.

"It’s a huge protection. Taking on that name would have been a gamble," he said. "At the time there was no confidence with the way things were run. I had to go with something, and that’s the way it went." The switch is going to a be a costly one for a team still $10,000 in debt. McLeod expects the price tag to run upwards of $30,000 for new equipment and a new start. "It’s almost like paying two years for one," he said. "The first year is going to be a struggle to get through, that’s the main thing. "It would have been more cost effective (to maintain status quo)." Burgundy will be the Renegades’ predominate colour, with white added for the home jerseys and black on the road. The logo resembles the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen. Green and white - Woodstock’s colours - were given serious consideration, but McLeod wanted something more unique. "We wanted the city colours, but teams like the London Knights are right down the road and we didn’t want to look like a ripoff," he said. McLeod put to rest any notion he was planning to move the team, and said the change would help facilitate a move up the OHA ranks. "I’d say now that we are a Junior B team in the making," he said, giving a time line of three to four years for such a move. "There’s a lot of things we’d have to have put in place." It remains to be seen how fans will embrace the change, but McLaren said former players he’s spoken with share his view. "Everybody grew up wanting to be a Navy Vet," he said. "I suppose you can start a new tradition, but there’s a lot of history for me. "Everybody that wore that anchor on their chest, you took pride in the logo." McLeod agreed the move was the end of an era, but preached patience in building a new one. "I don’t think you can dance around that it is, but it’s the beginning of a new one," he said. "Woodstock is in the process of a lot of things happening, and this is no different. It’s becoming a new city." End of an era, yes, but not end of team One Person’s View

Bill Scriven Monday April 30, 2007 Change is necessary, change is good. An overused cliché used once too often by a former publisher of the Sentinel-Review, but one that applies readily to the situation unfolding for the Junior C hockey club in Woodstock. The name "Navy Vets’’ is as synonymous to the Friendly City as the Springbank Snow Countess. The name is etched in the lexicon of sports lore in this city for more than 40 years - back to Canada’s centennial year - and it appears the name is about to be put on the shelf. In Friday’s Sentinel-Review, sports reporter Cory Smith revealed the relatively new ownership of the hockey club has applied to the league to change the name to the Renegades, as in the Ottawa Renegades. We know what happened to that cherished Canadian Football League franchise. This past year was one of the most difficult periods in Navy Vets history. While the hockey club persevered on the ice and made it to the playoffs, the distractions off the ice placed the team in a heap of controversy. Now, new team owner Bill McLeod wants to put the shenanigans that unfolded away from the ice on ice, by changing the name of the team. McLeod needn’t look any further than team general manager Dave McLaren to see what kind of response he can expect with the name change. If anyone has Navy Vets blood running through their veins, it is McLaren. He donned the anchor of the Navy Vets in the team’s inaugural season, which just happened to be Canada’s centennial and the final season of the original six teams in the National Hockey League. McLaren played, coached and now manages the hockey club. He has never been too far away from the operation. He was a member of the Navy Vets when they won their only Ontario Hockey Association Junior C championship.

"I personally don’t like it (name change),’’ he told the Sentinel-Review. "I’m a bit of an old-school person that way.’’ McLaren won’t be alone. He and many, many others who have been affiliated with the club will be mourning the change to the Renegades. Several years ago, the Woodstock Minor Hockey Association moved away from the logo of the Woodstock character in the Peanuts comic strip and incorporated the Navy Vets logo throughout its system. The move was seen as a way to motivate young hockey players to aspire to become a member of the Junior C team. With the name change, it will be interesting to see how the WMHA responds. It would make all the sense in the world to keep to the Navy Vets logo - that way, the name would remain part of the local hockey community. McLeod seems convinced a name change will help clean the slate and begin a new era in the storied history of the Navy Vets, eyeing a move to Junior B status a few years down the road. It’s going to be costly, but the new owner seems willing to forge ahead. McLeod provides a new vision for the hockey club and that’s not bad. "Everybody grew up wanting to be a Navy Vet,’’ McLaren said. "Everybody that wore that anchor on their chest, you took pride in that logo.’’ It may be an end to an era, but not the end of Junior C hockey in Woodstock. That in itself is a positive - a few months back it looked like the team was going to fold. The team’s longtime affiliation with the Oxford County Naval Veterans Association may have come to an end, but will not be forgotten. Go Renegades go! Changing the name, logo and colours is all about perception

By Cory Smith SPORTS REPORTER Tuesday May 01, 2007 Come September, the most interesting question surrounding the Woodstock Renegades' first season won't revolve around the team's new colour scheme or logo. No one, outside of team owner Bill McLeod and maybe a few fashion-conscious fans will care if the carpet matches the drapes, and the Renegades are indeed dressed in burgundy to match cavernous Southwood Arena's seats. The biggest question regarding the 'Gades will revolve around their perception. Will players and fans embrace this team as they did during this spring's playoff run, its last as the now defunct Navy Vets? When McLeod and Vets' founder Sam Keeping (who is back on the outside, looking in) rescued the team from Steve Barber and the Leggat Entertainment Group in February, the duo brought with them an aura of stability to a proud, but sinking franchise. A first-round upset of defending champion Simcoe in a seven-game playoff thriller and a spot in the Niagara west final - an annual routine not long ago - helped cement the team’s legitimacy in the eyes of players and fans. However, McLeod is floating in uncharted waters after his announcement that the Navy Vets were capsizing before resurfacing as the Renegades for 2007-08. General manager Dave McLaren, who played in the Vets first season and was part of the only OHA championship in 1968-69, has already given his thumbs down. Before the announcement was made, others currently within the organization privately said they didn’t want to see a change. "I personally don’t like it," McLaren said last week. "I’m a bit of an old-school person that way." McLaren said former players he has spoken with share his view, and one can only wonder how many others out there feel the same way.

Hockey, as much as any other sport, is a game built on history and tradition. Change is met with great resistance. Just ask the London Knights, who switched from fabled green and gold to forgettable eggplant and teal in the mid-1990s. Instead of the classic knight logo, fans and players were subjected to a cartoonish Spider-Man caricature, which was derisively dubbed "Spiderknight." New owner Doug Tarry Jr. wanted to put his stamp on the team, and did so with a 3-60-3 record, a Canadian Hockey League record for futility. Most alarmingly, and something McLeod should keep in mind, is the disconnect that grew between the team and its fans until the Hunters re-introduced the green and gold in 2002. No one is suggesting the Renegades are poised to trade places with the winless Paris Mounties as the Niagara west’s doormats, but part of the team’s success this season hinges on perception. The move is certainly not the first of its kind in the division. In New Hamburg, the Firebirds are the third incarnation after the Hahns and Spirit of ‘83 failed to stick. McLeod has said he tried to maintain the Navy Vets’ name, but because of legal reasons was advised to cut ties and free himself of past mismanagement. As a member of the OCPS, McLeod is well versed in matters of liability. As the owner of a junior hockey team, it’s time for him to be held to accountability. Like it or not, there will be fans who don’t trust McLeod because he is an outsider. Barber, who came from Ancaster, didn’t do the London native any favours by running up a debt around $70,000 and further shaking the public’s trust. Forty-one years is a significant chunk of time, but in hockey, it’s ancient. The Navy Vets, through good times and bad - and there were plenty of both in the franchise’s history - were a junior hockey institution in this city for four decades. There’s no reason not to believe McLeod’s rationale that legalities prevented him from staying the course, and let’s hope it holds true. However, changing the identity for anything less than those reasons could be perceived as desperate and disloyal. And in junior hockey, sometimes it’s perception that counts the most. Imagine the possibilities Now that owner Bill McLeod has made it official, the Woodstock Junior Hockey Club will now be known as the Renegades. Although there is a sketch and possible colour scheme for the new uniforms, sports editor Darryl G. Smart wanted to lend a hand in the design process.

Darryl G. Smart SPORTS EDITOR Monday April 30, 2007 Now that Bill McLeod has made the Woodstock Renegades a reality, there’s one major order of business to attend to. What to wear of course. Although early indications are that the new logo will resemble that of the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL, with the colour scheme surrounding around a burgundy theme. From a fashion sense, the colours are very now - especially if your a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, or if you enjoyed the Hitmen uniforms a couple of years ago when they used burgundy - but only for a couple of seasons before going back to their original pink. The colours are nice, but to be honest, I’d like to see something a little different - something a little more old school. Although the the Navy Vets used the blue and white of the Toronto Maple Leafs, that colour cannot be used. This organization has been there and done that. This new era is exactly that, it’s a fresh start for junior hockey in Woodstock.

That brings me to the colour scheme the Renegades should use. Although Woodstock minor hockey used the white, gold and black of the Boston Bruins, the city’s colours are green - so why not green - it’s different, it’s daring, it’s old school, especially if they use the green, white and yellow of the old Minnesota North Stars. The old North Stars colours would slightly satisfy those worries set down by the traditionalists in Woodstock. Let’s go green. I can see the signs already. Now that the colours are set, it’s the logos turn to get a makeover. Though the Hitmenesque logo is cool and progressive, I think it needs a little more urban meets rural feel - afterall, that’s what Woodstock prides itself on. So why not show off the fact the Friendly City is also the Dairy Capital of Canada. Heck, we have the Snow Countess, so why not have some form of cattle on the hockey jersey. So that is why I’m thinking the Renegades should have a cattle feel to it. To the left are a few of my favourite cattle-themed sports logos, something McLeod and company should seriously consider. Not only do they all give off that urban meets rural feel, they are very today, very different from any other hockey team in the area. As you can see, each of the suggested logos are flashy, but most of all they will keep the integrity and history of the Friendly City in tact. Something that should be carefully thought out, especially since this will be a new era in Woodstock hockey - one that may never be changed again. But most of all, those logos all would look great on green jerseys.