Pistons seek billet families

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This article was published 14/08/2019 (1716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Another season of Steinbach Pistons hockey is on the horizon, and as the club prepares for training camp they are hoping a few local families will offer up their homes for a few out of town hockey players who will soon be coming to town and need a place to stay.

Steinbach resident Stacy Froese is the volunteer billet coordinator for the Pistons hockey club, and she said that with training camp set to begin soon, the Pistons are currently looking for three billet families who would be willing to take in Pistons players for the upcoming season. 

Froese said she understands that some may be reluctant to let a stranger into their home for an entire hockey season, but after six years of billeting herself she said the experience year-after-year has always been positive for her and her family.

“We just stated billeting with one boy and then we thought if it doesn’t work we don’t have to continue,” Froese said. “But we just really fell in love with doing it, and for the first two years we had one athlete, and since then we have had two every year.”

For Froese the positive relationships she has made with many current and former Pistons players is the reason she keeps inviting them into her home.

“It’s the connections you make with these boys and the relationships that you form, they really become part of the family,” Froese said.

“There is so much you get to learn about these young men, you open your home to them and you start to love them like your own.”

Froese said as a billet family they have also offered emotional support season after season to young players going through the rigors of a hockey season.

“You’re their support if they are having a bad day or had a bad game, you see how they are dealing with things, are you try to help them,” she said.

Froese added that with Pistons training camp set to kick off in early September she hopes a few more families will offer some space to Pistons players or even just contact her to learn more about billeting before making a decision.

Any family that offers up their home as a billet will receive two regular season and playoff season tickets for the upcoming Pistons season, and either a $315 cheque or a $350 Sobeys gift card each month that they host a player in their home.

Anyone looking for more info on billeting can contact Stacy Froese at info@steinbachpistons.ca