Hoover releases novel
6/26/2007

A weekly featured series from selected Alumni players
This week :  I Remember. . . .
Mike Hoover 1969-71

    I got a call one day to referee an exhibition hockey game in Penticton between a combined team from Summerland and The Grand Forks Border Bruins.  I had given up my hockey stick for a referees' whistle and was working lots of midget games and doing the lines for the local Junior games.
     I had had occasions to see some of my former team mates on teams from Vernon, Kelowna, Merritt and so on.  I was especially proud of these guys who had taken it one step further than I was able to.  One thing I didn't bargain for was the rough ride I was about to receive from these players from the Kootenays.
     One thing that struck me immediately was that there were a couple of players still on the team that I played with.  Wow I thought and then remembered.  "There's Lorne Plotnikoff; he was only 14-years old when I
played with him."  Can you imagine having a 14 year old on a junior team today?  He was bigger and stronger and looked like a star.  
     It didn't take long for the Border Bruins bench to recognize me and start in.
  "There's Hoover, he brought a new meaning to the word GOON  in the KIJHL and now he's a referee."  They really had no mercy on me and I must
admit I had it coming.  I was a big kid and my greatest asset was not my stick
handling and skating.
     It was a great hockey game and I was especially impressed with a kid that we had heard about but never seen.   His name was Ron Areshenkoff.  He made a shot and scored a goal with a release like I had never seen before.
      The Border Bruins lost that game but went on to be the Western Champions, and I am so proud to have at least been on the ice with them in that capacity.  I feel like a champion too.
Mike Hoover - First team

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