Skip to content

Castlegar Rebels name leadership team

The Castlegar Rebels have named four 20-year-old players to next season’s leadership team.
7686058_web1_161013-CAN-Rebels
Rebels forward John Moeller digs into the ice during a game in Nelson. (File)

The Castlegar Rebels have announced their leadership team for next season.

All four players named to the leadership team are returning players and all were born in 1997, making this their last year in the KIJHL before they age out. The leadership team is John Moeller, Ed Lindsey, Chance Szott and Vince Bitonti.

The Rebels are not yet announcing who will be captain.

“We have no timeline (for announcing a captain), it could be next week or it could be main camp. We will for sure name (a captain) prior to the start the season out of that group though, but we felt that this was the group we wanted to move forward with as leaders and as our 20-year-old players for the upcoming season,” coach and GM Bill Rotheisler said in a press release. “We were very happy with our group last season, but wanted to make this year’s an improvement even on that. This year our group will consist of 12 total years as a Castlegar Rebel, as opposed to last season’s nine.

“We have exceptionally high expectations of ourselves this year. These players act as far more than spokesmen for the staff; if anything, we (the staff) are spokesman for them. They, and the rest of the vets, created this identity and these expectations.”

Teams in the KIJHL are allowed a maximum of five 20-year-old players and the Rebels ended last season with eight players born in 1997 on the team, so the team is expected to announce cuts.

So far one player born in 1997, Kyle Bergh, has moved on, but the announcement of the leadership team gives a clearer picture of which 1997-born players will be staying on for the upcoming season.