The Prince George Kodiaks have a new board of directors, and a big task ahead of them.
The team held its annual general meeting tonight (Wednesday), with more than 80 passionate community members in attendance at the business complex at 556 North Nechako Road.
With three board members resigning last month, the remaining board members attended the meeting with an independent chair brought in to help transition to the new board.
The following were nominated and acclaimed into their roles:
- President – Nicolas Fricke
- Vice President – Jake Eberle
- Vice President – Bryan Bucci
- Secretary – Charlotte Roy
- Treasurer – Eugene Bellamy
- Director – Cheryl Wilson
- Director – Tera Drost
- Director – Stephen Riding
- Director – Logan Devauld
- Director – Shawna Eberle
- Director – Ethan Ready
Some of the directors will take on specific roles within the board, overseeing portfolios such as marketing, governance, and more.
The new board will be tasked with the resolution of issues with the organization.
The board will have to hit the ground running, with a 48 hour timeline to show the BC Football Conference the team can operate.
“First steps were getting the board together, now bringing the board up to speed, getting them to look together at putting together a budget that would be acceptable for the league for our junior football capacities, then figuring out a revenue projection model of how we’re going to obtain that, and then it becomes, it starts to be boots on the ground to obtain that as well, jumping out into the community and asking for the support. Hopefully it’s there for us,” said Kodiaks General Manager Ryan Bellamy following the meeting.
“On the other hand, it allows the board to enter into negotiations with Coach Boreham to see if there is a suitable solution to bring him back to the team. As well, we’ve laid out plans for a worst case scenario, what that would look like, and we’ll continue to work our way towards meeting our obligations for spring camp, to make sure that there is a team getting fielded, the players know what’s happening in the process so they can make their commitments, and really just continue to be the team that was brought here to service the community.”
Fricke said behind the scenes work had already started prior to the meeting.
“We have, I want to say 86 per cent of everything already lined up,” he said.
“We just need to make sure the budget is balanced and proper, and then that’s the last piece the board really needs that they were asking for, and then the league will be happy.”
After the next 48 hours, Fricke said the next step is ensuring the team has coaches.
“Primarily, that revolves around Jamie, we would love for him to come back,” Fricke said.
“I worked underneath him when I came to Prince George, he brought me on, one of the greatest coaches, I was just telling one of the parents, he’s one of the most genuine people I have ever met in my life, on and off the field. He’s great with the kids, great for the team, he was great for the program, we would love to have him come back, now there’s some things we need to do for him to rebuild that trust and to rebuild that relationship, but I’m confident we can do that.”
Fricke said being open and transparent will be key for rebuilding trust within the community.
“This cannot be for one individual, this has to be for the team,” he said.
“I will do anything I need to do for the team, it’s not about the coaches, it’s not about the parents, it is about the players, because without them there is no team. We have to do what’s right by them, we do right by the players, we do right by the program, we’ll do right by the community, and that trust will come back.”
Bellamy said trust is a hard thing to get back in these situations.
“We’re going to be as transparent as possible, we’re not going to hide from the hard questions right now,” he said.
“We know that that’s going to be the biggest thing, for people to trust, they’re going to need to hear some of the answers and it’s hard to necessarily say them all out loud when you don’t have all the information or haven’t had the time to get in front of it all, but that’s going to be the process for the new board, is figuring that all out, and working together and figuring out what they can say, and when they can say it, to start to bring a full picture of how we got here, and what the plan is moving forward and how we can fix it moving forward.”
During the meeting, it was stated an executive was appointed to run day to day operations, while the board was brought in to approve budgets and general things.
Financial statements showed a $426,235 promissory note, with the board saying seven per cent interest is being paid on it.
Financial statements also showed a $23,333 deficiency for 2025, as well as a revenue loss of about 17.5 per cent from the year prior.
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