As Hometown Hockey hits Airdrie this weekend (December 16-17), we look back at the players, coaches, trainers and unsung heroes that shaped Airdrie's Hockey history.

Ralph Eggins was manager and trainer with the Airdrie Xtreme for over ten years and was with them for their Western Bantam Championship in 2009.

However, Eggins admits he was very hesitant when offered the opportunity in the first place.

"At first I was kind of not sure about how that would work out. It was a great pleasure to work with these young men and their journey and it was quite interesting to find out [the] high level of hockey that was involved with the Airdrie Xtreme."

There were hundreds of players and volunteers that made their way through the Xtreme organization in Eggin's tenure, but one man in particular was truly the team's unsung hero.

"We had a fellow by the name of Vic Wiebe. He was the unofficial historian of the Airdrie Xtreme. He had huge amounts, a wealth of knowledge of the Xtreme and followed these players significantly. Today we have all these players in the Ron Ebbesen Arena, that was all because of Vic."

Eggins and Wiebe worked with many great players on the 2009 Championship team including Anthony Paskaruk, Spenser Jensen and Mason Burr. Eggins says it was one of the best parts of his role as manager to see young players succeed.

"It necessarily wasn't always hockey but it was nice to watch them rise up. You see Ty Rattie and Dana [Tyrell] and Zach Boychuk play for the World Junior team. It's a great sense of pride that they came from this team."

 

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