A former captain of the Okotoks Junior B Bisons is back in town.
Cale Granson, who played four years with the Junior B team, has returned to the club as a trainer after graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Iowa last February.
“The Bisons have always been close to my heart and I missed the camaraderie of being with the guys,” Granson said with a smile. “I’m a lot older and wiser than they are (the players) now, but even the coaching staff, those guys were here — Mike Hannigan and Jay McFarlane. And a lot of the board members were on the board when I was here.”
The lanky forward played for the Bisons from the 2003-04 season to 2006-07. He was awarded the captaincy his final season. Granson, who was elected to the Bisons Wall of Fame in 2007, is the sixth in career points with the Bisons at 253 (103 goals, 150 assists) in 188 games. He also won the Bisons’ President’s Trophy in 2007.
Not bad for a guy who thought he was going to quit hockey after Midget AAA to focus on school.
“I was approached by former Bisons general manager Murray McCourt and I came out to a couple of practices and liked all the guys and I decided to stick around for while,” said Granson, a graduate of Highwood High School in High River. “You always say you’re going to hang them up and not play competitive hockey, but you always have second thoughts.”
The Bisons went to the provincial championship in three of his four years, however, they never struck gold having to settle for bronze.
“We went a long ways but we never won provincials,” Granson said. “I think we went (to provincials) the first three years I was here. I thought a couple times we had the best team in the province, but we were never able to pull it off.”
The Bisons only managed the provincial bronze medal in 2006.
“It’s so hard to pick out a highlight — every year was different and every year was great,” Granson said. “I still keep in touch with some of the Bisons. I saw some them of recently when I was playing in a pick-up game in Calgary… Lee Miller and Nick Cuvelier.”
He is presently working at Cornerstone Chiropractic, with Dr. Lorne Dielissen, who was the trainer back in Granson’s final season with the Bisons.
“I had talked to him about coming back here (to Okotoks) when I was done school,” Granson said. “I geared a lot of my education to sports medicine, rehabilitation and that kind of thing, so coming back to help the Bisons just seemed to be a natural fit.”
He’s using some of the not so-pleasant memories of his playing days to help the current crop of Bisons.
Granson had shoulder problems in his years with the Bisons and he is currently helping a Bison get on the mend from a separated shoulder.
Granson is like a lot of former Bisons who get separated from the herd for a while after graduation. They have a tendency to roam back.
Bison GM Jay McFarlane said he is glad to have him back in the fold.
“It’s kind of we like to see things work out to have our old alumni come back,” McFarlane said, adding former Bison Trevor Snodgrass is also a new member of the coaching staff.
