Noah Gregor and Max Martin pose with the Ed Chynoweth Cup with their billets, the Friedt's. (From left to right), Noah Gregor, Chase Friedt-Mohr, Max Martin, Dean Friedt, Reese Friedt-Mohr and Dannielle Mohr. (Submitted photo/Dean Friedt)

By Jeff D’Andrea

Shoutout to the billets

Raider billets forced to take year off as operations move to Regina

Feb 24, 2021 | 5:08 PM

When hockey players make a major junior or an elite U18 hockey team and have to move away from home to play, they need a place to stay.

That’s where billet families come into play. A billet family will take in the player and treat him or her just like they were their own child. They give them a place to stay, sleep, eat, but also a place to grow and develop as a player and a person. And many times in the process, that ‘second family’ slowly becomes just another part of the family.

“It forms lifelong relationships with everybody involved,” said Dean Friedt, billet coordinator for the Prince Albert Raiders, and a longtime billet father himself. “Once they become part of your family, it’s hard to see them go when they move on after their stay in Prince Albert.”

But this year, the Raiders will be based in Regina and play all of their 24 regular-season games there. That means billet families will have to wait at least a year to have another Raider in their home.

“It’s definitely different. When the players left last year in March, we thought it was probably going to be for a week or two. Here we are a year later, and players are going to be piling into Regina now and not coming to Prince Albert at all this year,” Friedt said. “Hopefully things get back to normal in August and the beginning of September here or camp.”

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James Bettauer, the Friedt’s first billet, poses with a young Chase Friedt-Mohr during a Raider family skate. Submitted photo/Dean Friedt.

Friedt said it is rewarding in a number of ways to be a billet family for players. Over the years, lifelong friendships can be formed with the players. Friedt and his family have been able to do that with some really important Raiders in recent memory, with Noah Gregor and Max Martin during the 2019 WHL title-winning year, as well as Austin Glover, Jordy Stallard, Graeme Craig, Mackenzie Johnstone, Dalton Yorke, Anthony Bardaro and their first player, James Bettauer.

“You always want to treat these kids like they’re one of your own. You bring them into your house, you take them grocery shopping and find out the foods they like,” Friedt said. “The players, once they start getting comfortable and the billets start getting comfortable with the player… you treat them like one of their own and they become family.”

End of an era

After billeting Raider players in the past six decades, Carol Ring has decided to call it a career.

Ring and her late husband Ralph began billeting players from the very beginning, back when the Raiders started playing in 1971 in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

Ring then took a break in 1992 but started up again in 2007 to billet kids by herself before passing the torch to other P.A. hockey families.

When asked why now was the time to let it go, Ring said it was because of Raiders forward Spencer Moe. Since Moe was returning for his fifth and final year with the team, Ring figured she would stay one last year to see Moe’s time as a Raider was up.

“Now it’s really the end, it makes me really sad,” Ring said.

In her time, Ring has billeted some of the best Raiders ever from Mike Modano, to Leon Draisaitl, and Dean McAmmond, and still gets the odd phone call, text, and visit from a lot of her former players.

“[I’ve been] invited to weddings years after they’ve been here. Really, it’s just the relationships that have been special,” Ring said. “This Christmas, I got a Christmas card with a family photo from Ryan Button, who was from 10 years ago…How sweet is that?”

When asked who was the messiest player she had the pleasure to house, Ring couldn’t pick just one because almost all of them left their clothing and items strewn across the floor. But she was able to pick out the cleanest player, recent Raider, and current Everett Silvertip Cole Fonstad.

“It’s pretty hard to say because they’re all messy. Very few of them are neat. Probably the cleanest person was Cole Fonstad, but he was still messy,” Ring said. “But it was when he decided to clean up, my God. The Lysol wipes were out everywhere even though it wasn’t necessary. And that was way before COVID.”

The WHL East Division, where the Raiders have been slotted, will start play at the Brandt Centre in Regina on March 12.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW