Ray Reavely has always been involved in hockey, starting when he first put on skates at the age of three to eventually becoming a respected leader in local hockey as a coach, referee and executive member of the Burford Minor Hockey program.
“I played minor hockey in Burford my entire life, and I still play it to this day with guys that I played with back when I first started. I played house league all the way up until I aged out at juvenile,” he said. “From then, I got into coaching and refereeing. Then when I had my children… my son and daughter… I got into coaching them right from when they started on the ice. My son was four years old when he started, and that’s when I got into the Learning to Skate program. And I’ve been with that program for around 15 years now.
“I’ve been Coach Ray since 1987,” he added, “and I still play hockey with guys that I started playing with close to 49 years ago.”
The Learn to Skate program has been important to helping the next generation of players. Local hockey has long had a tyke program for very young players, but the Learn to Skate program, which brings three-year-olds, is not designed around playing the game. Instead, it’s a fun way to get on the ice and pick up the basics of skating and hockey, without the structure of a game, which is often lost on very young skaters.
“What I’m finding now is that more and more children don’t have parents that came from a hockey background,” said Reavely. “We’re finding that there are a lot of families that are new to hockey, and the program we run now is a great introduction to getting them in… and enjoying the game.”
The program starts with the Lil Howler, for the under-five set. “It’s a program which has evolved. And right now, we do an equipment swap [and] we have a lot of hockey families with children that have outgrown their gear, so they donate the gear back,” said the coach. “We take children of all ages…they can come in, and if they’re new to hockey, we have enough equipment to outfit them from head to toe [and] can get them on the ice with no additional cost to their families. To me, it’s a sport that shouldn’t be expensive. This year so far, we’ve outfitted close to 25 players.”
As well, Reavely has reveled in his experience as a coach through the years, building children’s confidence while advocating fair play and leadership.
“I coached a mid to juvenile team to a championship, and then I’ve coached a peewee team where one of my players was a daughter of a gentleman that I coached, also to a juvenile championship. I’ve actually had two generations of championships,” he said. “It feels good to see where these kids start, where we can take them and what they can achieve… and through hockey… and taking that success into their everyday lives. It’s more than just a game; it’s the friendships that are built in hockey. These kids will have that forever.”
Stepping out from behind the bench and donning the stripes and whistle is yet another side to Reavely’s contribution to the game at the local level.
“The biggest thing is talking and developing these players even as a ref… and explaining to them what perspective we see on the ice as an official and how we have to make that split decision,” he said. “I’m able to discuss the game with the coaches…what an official sees from ice level versus the coach who is elevated on the bench.”
Reavely has refereed all age groups and uses his time on the ice to teach players how to play within the rules, while working with new officials, encouraging them to work on the craft despite how fans, coaches and others can make the job very difficult. “It’s unfortunate that a lot of officials will start but won’t hang around, just because of some of the challenging atmosphere,” he said. “They see the way some officials are treated, and it gets them frustrated. That’s part of the reason why I’m so busy officiating a lot of nights during the week because of the lack of officials.”
In case coaching and refereeing wasn’t enough, Reavely has also been the U5 to U9 convener in Burford, overseeing the Jamboree, now in its fourth year.
“The jamboree is a tournament for younger kids…they’re half-ice games. We do three jamborees a year, one in November, one in December, and one in February…and the most recent one we did was my favorite. It’s our U6 Jamboree,” he said. “For a lot of these kids, this is their first ever Jamboree… where we do O Canada, an official puck drop [and] there were four 6U teams on the ice standing on the blue line for O Canada, and they were all singing the national anthem, which was kind of cool.”
Being synonymous in the village’s hockey community, “Coach Ray” is well known in and around Burford District Elementary School.
“When my son was in public school at a Parent Teacher Day. Through the day, there was constantly a player coming out whom I coached at some point, giving me knuckles or saying ‘Hi Coach Ray!’” he recalled. “There was a point in between classes, and the line of students went to about 30 feet with many of them saying hi to me, the principal simply turned around and asked me if there was anyone I didn’t coach at the school? And that was a great feeling.”
Overall, for the veteran hockey mentor, it comes down to showing what the sport is all about beyond winning games.
