The Tisdale Senior Ramblers hockey team and the Tornados football team now have a place they can call their own.
The two teams held a grand opening of their joint dressing room and cut the ribbon Feb. 1.
Neil Elmslie, the Ramblers’ manager, said he was happy the project was finished.
“It was a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of effort,” he said.
“It’s a lot better than the old dressing rooms we used to have, both for the Ramblers and football,” said Dwight Marleau, an executive member of the hockey team.
Elmslie said moving the team out of their old dressing room and into the new one has rejuvenated the team.
The dressing room has two floors. The Ramblers occupy the ground level, while the Tornados have the upstairs.
Brian Ofukany, the head coach of the high school football team, said having the dressing room gives the players a sense of pride and ownership.
“It’s huge for the football team. We have our own personal space,” he said. “It’s made things simpler in terms of storing equipment and just having everything in one place, rather than being all scattered around.”
The project began when the town applied for a grant to build a new room for the ice resurfacer. There was some money left over, so a shell was attached to the south side of the RECplex.
“Once the shell was here – it was originally designed for four dressing rooms – and it sat empty for three or four years, the rec board had approached the Ramblers and the Trojans about the possibility of us moving over here to gain extra dressing rooms on the other side of the arena for minor hockey,” Elmslie said.
Both the Ramblers and the Trojans decided to take the offer. The Trojans have their dressing room, built last year, on one half of the shell, while the Ramblers and Tornados have their dressing rooms on the other half.
For the parts of the year the Tornados aren’t playing, their portion is being used by minor hockey teams.
Marleau said the new dressing room was a community effort, with both teams obtaining grants from organizations such as the Roughriders, the Tisdale Lions, the 2016 high school football reunion, and the Kay Montgomery and John Barron trusts. Local businesses also contributed, with some donating materials.
He said the dressing room is important for his team, which has been active since 1908.
“It’s upgrades like this that keep our organization running.”
