It all started off innocent enough. Brad Basso gets asked to help out with the coaching of a Cedar Park Red Wings playground hockey team. Just for a weekend mind you. That was nine years ago and by Basso’s own admission, he “can’t imagine where he would be without it”. 

“It” is now the Peewee version of the Cedar Park crew as Basso works with a group of youngsters, a core of which have remained under his stewardship dating all the way back to their days of Mickey Mouse hockey. 

On this Saturday afternoon at the Countryside Arena, the troops get a chance to enjoy a little “overtime” at the rinks. Despite trailing by a comfortable margin, Basso and his players agree to add an additional ten minutes or so of hockey at the end of regulation time and the rationale is pretty straight-forward. 

“We try and take advantage of any ice we have – it’s simply way too valuable not to use it”, says Basso. Where playground hockey was once the route through which all players with NHL dreams once traveled in Sudbury, it’s been a few years since that has been the case. 

These days, it’s an option that avoids the bureaucratic challenges presented the moment a young player donning the skates is required to sign an NOHA (Northern Ontario Hockey Association) card. And while being outside of the umbrella of Hockey Canada can have its disadvantages, the playground hockey crew are more than content to maintain their autonomy, recognizing that they truly provide a very beneficial option for any young boy or girl who simply wants to lace up the skates. 

“It seems that every year, I lose a kid or two to “AA” hockey or the SMHA houseleague teams”, admits Basso. But he perseveres with a Red Wings group that tend to run in a two-year cycle as players work their way through both the first and second year of each separate age grouping. 

With the cycle and the movement of players comes the inevitable highs and lows when it comes to the team’s won-loss record over the years. The 2007-08 Red Wings appear to be a solid mid-level team, a squad that is likely to both win and lose its fair share of games. 

That wasn’t the case three years ago when Basso was blessed with a particularly strong collection of players who managed to put together an impressive 34-1 record. “That was a pretty nice season”, Basso acknowledges with a smile. 

But it’s clear in talking to the upbeat coach that each year brings with it a share of great memories. “I think what is most special about this group is the closeness of the families and the kids” says Basso, who points out that many of the parents and children on the team also spend a great deal of time together in non-hockey related activities. 

“I could tell you a story about every single player on this team” he says, although the mischevious glint in Basso’s eye suggests it might be best if these “stories” were kept out of the public record. 

As for this year’s team, “we need more scoring…the passing is coming along great but we need to finish it off” explains Basso. As he sees the Peewee loop this year, Long Lake, Riverdale, Antwerp and Lo-Ellen are likely to form the top level of the division while the Red Wings settle in with the remainder of the teams. “If we play to our potential, we should do OK.” 

The 2007-08 Cedar Park Red Wings include: 

- goaltender Coady Leduc, who enjoyed an “outstanding SPHL tournament in January”. according to Basso 

- a defense corps of former high-scoring forward Keegan Basso, smooth skating Alexie Castilloux, Julie Taylor, who has spent six or seven years with the Wings and Rebekah Rego, whose twin brother Daniel is the team’s top scorer 

- August Danyluk will see time both up front and on defense but Basso appreciates more than anything the free spirited nature of the young man, who once reminded the coach during a particularly difficult post-game speech that “you know coach, its’ only a game!” 

- joining Danyluk and “crazy legs” Rego, as Basso has dubbed Daniel, are hard-working winger Jean Noel Desmarais, Atom aged Brayden Lewis, Patrick Diotte, particularly reknown for his battles in the corner, coming out with the puck and arguably the team’s most improved player in Nangoons Wabegijig-Skanes 

- rounding out the Red Wings roster is gifted skater Matthew Lemay, perhaps the quietest youngster of the group in Stephane St Louis, captain T.J. McLaughlin, always a “positive influence”, according to Basso and Taylor Barbeau, whom the coach knows he can count on for 120% effort each and every shift 

Brian Dickerson and Phil Barbeau join Basso on the coaching staff this year, although the latter notes that there is a group of four to five parents who tend to rotate every year. And one can only suspect the rotation is likely to continue for a few more years yet. After all, Basso simply would not know what to do with himself without his Red Wings by his side.