Bisons captain goes to the wall

The latest player to have his name etched into the Okotoks Junior B Bisons Wall of Fame was almost never a part of the organization.

Graduating captain Chase Fallis nearly joined the rival Coaldale Copperheads as a fresh-faced rookie four seasons ago and the Bisons’ brass is glad he didn’t. Fallis was a unanimous selection to the team’s Wall of Fame April 26 at the team’s awards banquet at the Foothills Centennial Centre. Director of operations Dean Chabot was also elected to the wall.

“My rookie year I never really got any invites anywhere and my buddy knew the coach for Coaldale,” Fallis said. “Coming into camp here I talked to (Bisons head scout) Dean Black and I knew it was going to be a good organization, that the team is always a top contender.

“I’m glad I decided to stay. I would have regretted if I hadn’t.”

The feeling is mutual from the Okotoks organization. Since Fallis, 22, donned the red-and-blue uniform, the Bisons won three straight Heritage Junior Hockey B League championships, capped off by their first provincial banner and a bronze medal at the Keystone Cup this season, the Western Canadian championship.

“It’s just been the best four years of my life,” Fallis said. “My rookie year I struggled a bit points wise, but every year I played the coaches put more trust in me and this year was the best year of hockey I’ve ever played.”

Fallis described the honour of joining the likes of former captains Trevor Snodgrass, Derek Schlamp and coaches Mike Hannigan and Jay McFarlane on the wall as simply unbelievable.

“Those guys on the wall have done a lot for this organization and I never thought I would have a chance to be up there,” Fallis said of the Wall of Fame honour. “To be there with those names is unreal and I will honour it for the rest of my life.”

He’s seen his role and production steadily increase in four years with Okotoks. All told, he registered 66 goals and 155 points as a tireless centre who could never be seen taking a shift off.

Bisons president Jay Pritchard said Fallis met all the criteria to earn a unanimous vote from the board for the Wall of Fame honour.

“If I were to quote the coaching staff they would say they’ve never had a captain as effective as this one,” Pritchard said. “Quiet, thorough, dedicated, hard working, Bison to the core, he made a difference to our team last year as a captain and this year as a captain.

“He did everything we could ever want from a player so it seemed appropriate to put him on the wall.”

The soft-spoken captain was a big winner at the 2013 awards banquet, also taking home the Leadership Award, the Hardest Working Bison award and the President’s Award. In four terrific seasons, he earned a staggering 11 team awards including a complete sweep of four hardest-working Bison honours, an award voted on by teammates.

It’s a work ethic Fallis inherited from his mother Carlee Oshiro, who walked away as the Bisons’ volunteer of the year.

“My mom’s always been a hard worker and growing up in minor hockey I never had the most skill,” Fallis said. “I’ve always just tried to play with a lot of heart.”

Oshiro was over the moon to see her son receive the ultimate honour from the storied Bisons franchise.

“I would never have dreamed it,” she said. “We almost went to Coaldale and Chase chose to stay here. That was his decision, I wanted to go to Coaldale, but it was the decision.”

Oshiro’s face is well known to Okotokians as the smiling volunteer worked the ticket booth at Bisons’ home games, among countless other endeavors for the team.

“The last four years have been just great and I totally wasn’t expecting this because there are so many people who do so much for this organization,” said Oshiro. “It’s a great honour and in our last year it’s just awesome to be recognized this way.”

The Bisons’ other chief honouree, Dean Chabot, had modest beginnings with the organization.

“I started going to a lot of the games as a fan just as a super hockey buff,” Chabot said. “After three years of that they asked me to join the board and 10 years later, here I am.”

Chabot was caught off guard by the Wall of Fame induction.

“I’ve been to four or five of these banquets where we haven’t given that award away,” Chabot said. “I wasn’t thinking it was coming, I’ll have to absorb it and let it sink in, but it’s an honour for sure.”

Pritchard described the director of operations as the team gopher, fulfilling unheralded roles from equipment purchases to board and marketing duties.

“Every year he steps up and does a little bit more,” Pritchard said. “He’s many times said, ‘I don’t know If I’ll come back next year’ and he always does.”

The Wall of Fame is voted on by the Bisons’ board of directors and it’s a decision the members don’t take lightly. Last season no individuals were selected to join the elite club.

“We looked at the criteria, we talked about awards and long term contributions and at the end of the conversation it was unanimous,” Pritchard said. “It’s dynamite when you come to a consensus, you know you’ve made the right choice.”