Pacific Junior Hockey League to expand to the Sunshine Coast
Celebrating a new team: Sunshine Coast Junior Hockey Society board and staff members, new franchise owners, league representatives and other officials celebrate the Sunshine Coast's new hockey team.Bronwyn Beairsto, Editor
Coast Reporter
August 2, 2023
The yet-to-be-named team will hit the ice in September 2024.
With a slight ferry-induced delay and to the gleeful shrieks of potential future players (and whoops from future fans), Pacific Junior Hockey League commissioner Trevor Alto announced Tuesday evening that the Sunshine Coast is joining the league in September 2024.
More than 100 people – including representatives from several local governments, the league, local businesses, and MP Patrick Weiler – gathered in the team’s future home, Gibsons and Area Community Centre Arena, to celebrate the “historic” announcement on Aug. 1.
Gibsons Building Supplies owner Julie Reeves has bought the team as the majority shareholder in Coastal Sports & Entertainment Group, along with investor Jon Hulstein. “My grandparents started a legacy of supporting community, we support everything,” said Reeves. “Anybody that comes through the door looking for something, receives something. Sometimes it’s 10 bucks, sometimes it’s a hockey team.”
While she’s not a hockey player – nor does she know how to skate – Reeves is described as a “driving force” behind the project in a league press release. Reeves told the crowd she would apply her approach from the store to the team, encouraging a familial atmosphere so that “we can nurture all these young people…and ultimately just let them grow into the best humans they possibly can be and give them as much opportunity.”
