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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2004)
OCTOBER 15, 2004 MCC A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe mam dJ! Mil ftilM.fWI --- ,. J www.grandronde.org Tribe Takes On Winter Hawks Sponsorship will mean tickets for Tribal members and a hot spot to get our message out. By Ron Karten T he Tribe's latest contribution to the community goes out to a bunch of kids 16-20 years old in the peak of health with a big leg up on the future. The Tribe now sponsors the Portland Winter Hawks Hockey Team. The Winter Hawks are among more than 50 teams that compete in the Western Hockey League (WHL), the top North American amateur league. In many cases, the WIIL is a step before the pros. The kids play great hockey, and as we learned during a recent visit to the Tribe's Governance Building, individually, they are acquiring a strong public persona, too. Many will go on to join profes sional teams. Almost 100 ex-Winter Hawks have now played in the National Hockey League, said Dean Vrooman, who has been the Voice of the Winter Hawks for 23 years. And here in Portland, they play hard and fast, and have won a hard-core base of thousands of dedicated fans. "If they've never been to a hockey game, I want to challenge them to come to a game," said Vrooman. "You got to see it in person. It's not a good TV sport. Unless you're al ready a fan. If you think you've watched it on TV and it was bor ing, you haven't see hockey until you've seen it in person," said Vrooman. The Western Hockey league started in Canada half a century ago but has expanded rapidly to become farm teams for the pros. The operation takes kids sometimes from half a continent away and puts them up with host families in 1 jr m jm mum. " JTri yr$k' "lw S$ ii fr Ice Time The Portland Winter Hawk's Braydon Coburn skates over the Grand Ronde Logo painted under the ice at Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, October 10. The Tribe has become a major sponsor of the team, hoping to reach some of the 250,000 fans who watch the Winter Hawks games each year. An identical logo is under the ice at the Rose Garden in Portland. The sponsorship also includes signs, promotions and free tickets. The hockey season goes until March of next year. the cities where the teams play. It requires that they succeed through high school graduation and pays for a year of college for them for each year of hockey they play for See Winter Hawks on page 8 0 Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon 9615 Grand Ronde Road Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347 PRESORTED FIRST-CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID SALEM, OR PERMIT NO. 178 OR NEWSPAPER PRO J. U0 LIBRARY SVSTEtl PRESERU 1299 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON EUGENE OR 97403-1 205 ' 4 ? H '3 : . Team Pride A fight breaks out as the Winter Hawks goalie, Kevin Opsahl, is checked to the ice during the Sunday, October 3 game against the Kamloops Blazers. The Tribal and Spirit Mountain Casino logos can be seen in the back ground as part of the sponsorship agreement between the Winter Hawks and the Tribe. The Winter Hawks went on to win the game 2-1 . o IX.
