There were plenty of people off the ice who helped make the Quesnel River Rush happen, dozens of volunteers and billet families, people who did the play-by-play coverage and so much more.
But chief among them is Hillary Shearing, the team's business manager and governor. When Tracy Mero, the team's owner, made the push to bring junior hockey back to Quesnel he asked Shearing if she would help out with running the team. Shearing was initially hesitant as she runs a business and didn't know if she could take on a big role with the team as well.
"I think once I realized it was a blank canvas and I was going to get to be a part of a piece of history for hockey again in Quesnel, it kind of sparked my interest," she said. "I love branding, I love marketing and I love bringing people together because."
She said being able to see the rink filled with excited fans and giving some of Quesnel's youngest players a chance to have players too look up were some of her biggest highlights of the season.
"I knew it was going to be a big job," she said. Shearing explained she had a family meeting to discuss how much busier she'd be. "Originally I was just going to be a part of the team and then when we started to break down the job criteria, I was like 'oh this has my name kind of written all over it,' like this is what I'm good at."
While she wasn't expecting the job to be as big as it ended up being, she's very grateful to have the opportunity and glad she did it. She's also optimistic next season will be easier without the extra work the team's first season brought.
One of the challenges they had was convincing players that Quesnel, the furthest north community in the KIJHL, was worth coming to.
"People didn't know about the city and they didn't realize how amazing the community is and how big of a hockey town we are," she said.
Once players started seeing the rink and experiencing the community, they talked to each other and made it easier to bring more people on board.
"I'm not sure how other hockey teams operate but I know that we definitely have gone the extra mile to make sure that the guys were comfortable," she said, adding that the staff and volunteers went above and beyond to help make the team a success.
Shearing also worked very closely with players' parents to help make sure they were comfortable sending their kids to play in Quesnel.
During the season, Shearing didn't have a normal day. As team governor, she represented the Rush at KIJHL meetings, all of the posts on the team's social media are managed by her, she runs the merch store and so, so much more.
"I know every single season's pass holder by name, where they sit, how many of them are in a group," she said. She also said she became a team mom figure. "Every single one of them stole a piece of my heart. I'm a mom of two as well so it kind of fell into place naturally."
While she was born and grew up in Quesnel, Shearing worked in the oil and gas industry for over a decade as a foreman and a dispatcher. She said she's used to working in organizations where she has a lot of people under her supervision.
She eventually got into marketing after moving back to Quesnel with her family. She's been hired by a number of companies to do social media marketing, consulting for business growth and worked in all kinds of marketing and branding positions. She learned how to do all of that on her own without any schooling and she said she has a passion for it.
Shearing also said she wholeheartedly loves Quesnel and it's where she wanted her kids to grow up.
"It's a community that everybody knows each other," she said. "We wanted to be surrounded by friends and family and raise our kids in a place that was still small enough that maybe we could pause time a little bit for how fast the world is moving."
She's also helped out a wide variety of organizations and with school activities, joking that she has a hard time saying "no" when somebody asks for help.
"I am a born helper-fixer, it's something I'm super passionate about, so that's why I have trouble saying no when anybody asks me to help."
She's looking forward to the Rush's next season and being able to go into it with the confidence that they know how to run the team and run it well.
"I am very thankful Tracy had the motivation to bring this team here for these local kids in Quesnel. If he didn't do it, I wouldn't have gotten this experience and a lot of people in Quesnel wouldn't have gotten to see that we're capable of having a Junior A team, so it's really a big deal that he did that," She said.
Shearing is also extremely grateful for all of the volunteers who put time into helping the team being a success. She said any time people tell her she did an amazing job with the team, she points out how many people came together to make it happen.
"There's so many people that help me with just the littlest things," she said. "You're lost without your volunteers and supportive people."
After the Rush's final game as the players came off the ice, Shearing said having around 40 people there to support them was a big deal and helped take some of the sting out of the players' final loss of the season.
No matter how times Shearing thanks the people who helped make it happen, she never feels like it's enough and wants those people to know how much they are appreciated for the time they gave to the team.
