With the Brant County Riverhawks inaugural game played in early October 2026, it was the start of a new era of hockey in the county and the realization of a dream that local entrepreneur Mike Rita-Procter had.
Rita-Procter, a founding director and the general manager of the team, discussed his background, especially in hockey.
“I’m Brantford-born and raised, and hockey has pretty much always been part of my life. I grew up playing competitive hockey here in Brantford, including AAA, and eventually played junior hockey as well. As I got older, I realized quickly that even if playing hockey wasn’t going to be my career, I wanted the game to remain a big part of my life. That took me in a lot of different directions,” he said. “I eventually would go on to attend Mohawk College for Television Broadcasting, and one of my first opportunities in professional hockey was working with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League doing camera and editing work. From there I became involved with the Brantford Blast, it was there that I got a feel for and inspired to get into hockey operations. I’ve also spent years coaching minor hockey, working with players and continuing to educate myself in the hockey operations side of the game. I completed the Sports Management Worldwide Hockey GM and Scouting program, and eventually everything I had done in hockey started pointing me toward wanting to build something of my own. The Riverhawks are really the culmination of all of those experiences.”
Rita-Procter has also built a strong foundation as a youth hockey coach.
“Coaching kids has probably influenced me more than people would expect. I’ve coached and trained players at several different minor hockey levels over the years, and this season I’m also Head Coach of the Brantford 99ers U11 Select team. Working with kids constantly reminds you that hockey is bigger than wins and losses. That’s something I want incorporated into the Riverhawks as well. I want our players interacting with minor hockey teams, being visible in the community and giving kids someone local they can look up to. If we’re going to call ourselves Brant County’s team, then we need to earn that title through what we do away from the rink too,” he reflected.
However, for Rita-Procter it was important to bring this level of hockey back into the community.
“The idea really came from believing there was an opportunity to bring high-level Senior A semi pro hockey back to this area and do it in a way that had its own identity. I had experience with the Brantford Blast and knew how much people around here enjoyed senior hockey. When that disappeared, it left a void. I didn’t want to simply recreate what existed before, though. I wanted to build something that represented all of Brant County and had its own personality, culture and connection to the community. That’s where the Riverhawks came from,” he noted. “There have been countless hours behind the scenes getting to this point. Building an ownership group, finding a league, securing an arena, recruiting players, hiring coaches and staff, finding sponsors, designing uniforms, building a website, selling tickets [and] the list never ends. And then on Friday October 2, which was our first game against Strathroy… I stood there and watched the Brant County Riverhawks play an actual hockey game for the first time. That was a pretty surreal moment.”
And the NPHL (Northern Premier Hockey League), afforded the opportunity for the Riverhawks to play.
“We wanted a legitimate Senior A league that was competitive, growing and gave us an opportunity to build something sustainable. The NPHL gave us that opportunity. There are some very good hockey players in this league. You’ve got a good mix of former professional players, major junior players, NCAA and university players, Junior A players and experienced senior players. There are guys who have played a lot of very high-level hockey. We also liked the weekend-based schedule. These guys have careers and families, but they still want to compete at a high level. We’re in the Metropolitan side of the NPHL and we’re playing a 20-game regular season (ten home and ten away)…followed by playoffs. People who haven’t seen this level of senior hockey might be surprised by what they see. It’s fast, skilled and physical hockey, and these guys are competing to win,” he said.
One of the key learning experiences for the Riverhawks’ GM was when he worked with the Brantford Blast especially with respected owner Peter Ham, who has owned multiple teams in Brantford.
“My time with the Blast was really important to my development. I initially worked on the sales and marketing side and later became involved in hockey operations and scouting. I had opportunities to support the GM, and the hockey operations staff and I got to experience the work that goes into operating a hockey team on a day-to-day basis. What I loved was seeing both sides of the organization. People see what happens during the game, but they don’t necessarily see everything required behind the scenes to put that product on the ice,” he recalled. “That experience stayed with me and definitely influenced how I’ve approached building the Riverhawks. I also developed relationships through the Blast that I still value today, including with former Blast owner Peter Ham, who has been someone I’ve been able to learn from and seek advice from while building the Riverhawks.”
It is also about finding ways of learning from others, as Rita-Procter explained.
“One of the most important things I’ve learned in business and hockey is to surround yourself with people who know things you don’t. I’ve been fortunate to have conversations and gain perspective over the years from people with significant hockey experience, including former NHL general manager Doug MacLean and former Brantford Blast owner Peter Ham, along with many other hockey people I’ve developed relationships with. You listen. You ask questions. Then, ultimately, you have to make the decisions that you believe are best for your organization,” he noted. “I’ve also learned quickly that owning a hockey team isn’t glamorous most of the time! It’s solving problems every single day. Sometimes you’re talking about signing a former professional player, and five minutes later you’re figuring out who’s scanning tickets or where a shipment of jerseys is. That’s the reality of building something from scratch, and I actually enjoy that part of it.”
Nevertheless, Rita-Procter’s strong entrepreneurial background has helped prepare him to operate the new hockey team.
“I’ve owned Scumbags & Cavaliers Barbershop Club since 2014. And owning a small business teaches you quickly that nobody is coming to do the work for you. You learn marketing, customer service, budgeting, branding, hiring, problem solving and, probably most importantly, how to build relationships. Our barbershop has always been very community-driven. It’s not just somewhere people get their hair cut. You develop genuine relationships with people and their families,” he explained. “That translates directly into what we’re doing with the Riverhawks. A hockey team is obviously a completely different business, but you’re still building a brand and an experience. You’re selling tickets, working with sponsors, managing people and trying to make your customers, in this case our fans, want to come back. And just like the barbershop, I want the Riverhawks to feel like a community.”
While developing the team, Rita-Procter was faced with his share of challenges and successes along the way.
“I don’t think I fully appreciated how many moving parts there would be until we were actually doing it. You’re literally starting with a name and an idea. Then suddenly you’re dealing with league requirements, ownership, insurance, arenas, ice contracts, players, coaches, staff, sponsors, uniforms, equipment, transportation, ticketing, websites, social media, volunteers and game-day operations. There have definitely been challenges. Even something like our uniforms becoming delayed immediately before our first game created a situation we had to solve on the fly,” Rita-Procter stated. “But the highlights have outweighed all of it. Watching players believe in what we’re building. Seeing local businesses become founding partners. Seeing people wearing Riverhawks merchandise around town before we’d even played a game. And finally watching those guys step onto the ice Friday night wearing the wings. I’ve probably learned more in the last several months than I could have learned from any textbook. The biggest lesson is that you need good people around you. You can’t build something like this alone.”
And during the first half of 2026, Rita-Procter has been dedicated in putting together a competitive team.
“One thing I’m extremely proud of is the calibre of people and players we’ve been able to attract in year one. Rick Volterra is our Head Coach, and one of the things I appreciate about Rick is that he holds guys accountable. We’re trying to establish standards from day one. Nobody is entitled to a spot in the lineup because of their name or where they’ve played before. We’ve also built an ownership and hockey operations group around the team, including Steve Dostal, [who] is our Director of Player Personnel and Christian Laracy, [who is] our Assistant GM, along with coaches, staff, medical personnel, and our amazing equipment manager Blair Burton, [as well as] volunteers and others who have stepped up to help build this team,” he stated. “On the player side, we’ve assembled a really interesting mix. We have players with professional experience, NCAA/college experience, major junior, Junior A, and high-level senior experience. Players like Taylor Doherty, Trevor Lord, Kalib ‘Gus’ Ford, Anthony Pullicino, and a number of others give us a combination of skill, size, toughness and experience….Doherty obviously brings an incredible hockey background. He was a second-round NHL draft pick by San Jose and played professional hockey for years. Trevor Lord has extensive professional experience, and] Gus Ford has been an MVP at the professional level. But we’re not trying to become a collection of resumes. We’re trying to become a team. That’s going to take some time, and that’s probably the part I’m most excited to watch develop.”
However, there were a number of ways that the team assembled its roster.
“We cast a pretty wide net [and] recruited players directly…[we also] had players contact us and held camps where guys had the opportunity to show us what they could do. But we weren’t only looking at who had the best statistics or highest level on their resume. We wanted players who fit what we’re trying to build. We wanted skill, obviously, but we also wanted size, speed, compete level, toughness and character. We want guys who will stand up for one another and guys who actually want to be part of something. One thing we’ve said from the beginning is identity first. We’re still learning exactly what this team is going to become, but with our first night…it gave us our first real glimpse of it,” Rita-Procter stated.
While the Riverhawks represent the Brant community, the team made the decision to make Burford home.
“Burford just felt right. It’s a hockey community. People care about their town, they support local organizations and there’s something special about playing senior hockey in a smaller community where the team can really become part of the fabric of the town. We’ve started calling the Burford Community Centre: ‘The Hawks Nest,’ because we want that building to develop an identity of its own,” he said. “I want Saturday night Riverhawks hockey to become something people look forward to. Come down with your family or your buddies. To grab a beer in the beer garden [and] get some popcorn, lemonade or a dirty soda [and to] watch fast, physical hockey. I also want to let kids experience it up close [and] meet the players. We don’t want people to simply attend a hockey game. We want Saturday night at the Hawks Nest to be an experience. And I think Burford is the perfect place to build that.”
Although the Riverhawks dropped their first game in team history, it was, regardless, an important one against the Strathroy Jets.
“I was extremely proud of how we played. We went into Strathroy for the first game in franchise history against one of the league’s strongest teams and lost 6-3, with the final goal going into an empty net. But the score doesn’t really tell the story of how competitive that game was. We were 0-0 after the first period and our guys came out playing fast, physical hockey. They battled all night and never quit. Trevor Lord scored the first regular-season goal in Riverhawks history. Gus Ford and Anthony Pullicino also scored. All three of our goals came on the power play, and Gus was named the game’s first star. Ben Edwards was outstanding in net and stopped 47 shots. [However,] the thing that excited me most was that most of these guys had never played a meaningful game together before. I said after the game that I was very proud of their effort and how they never gave up. If that’s our starting point, I’m really excited to see what happens as the chemistry develops,” Rita-Procter explained.
However, as the team looks ahead, there are some important goals for the season and beyond.
“We’re here to win. We’re a first-year organization, but that doesn’t mean we’re treating this as some multi-year experiment where winning doesn’t matter yet. We want to compete for a championship. At the same time, we’re trying to build something sustainable that lasts well beyond this season. I want kids growing up around Brant County knowing who the Riverhawks are. I want our players out in the community. I want local businesses to be proud to associate their names with us. I want the Hawks Nest packed on Saturday nights. Five years from now, I want people to look back at this inaugural season and say, ‘I was there when it started,’” he stated.
Nevertheless, Rita-Procter is looking forward to building something special in the community with the Brant County Riverhawks.
“The biggest thing I’d tell people is: come experience this for yourself. You don’t have to take my word for it. Our first-ever home game was on Saturday, October 10 at the Burford Community Centre. We opened against the defending champion Alvinston Killer Bees. That’s about as good a home opener as we could ask for. You saw skilled players playing at a competitive level. There were hits, toughness and guys competing. But we’re also building an entire Saturday-night experience around hockey: the beer garden, food and treats, music, entertainment, promotions and an atmosphere where families, kids and hardcore hockey fans can all have a great night,” he stated. “We’ve spent months talking about what the Brant County Riverhawks could become. Now people finally get to see it…[and] I want to see Burford and Brant County fill that building and show these players exactly what it means to play at the Hawks Nest.”
