Steve Milton: Ron Sedlbauer and Mark Jooris go back to their hockey roots
Their hockey paths were separated by nine years, two continents and a critical five inches in stature, but have wound right back to the very spot both men started. In their hometown, in the arena where each idolized Burlington Cougars junior B players, then starred for the team themselves.
Ron Sedlbauer, 68, is president of the now-junior A team, named after the famous Cougar Shoes, his father Walter Sedlbauer's company. He played for the junior B Cougars in 1970, moved to the major junior Hamilton Red Wings, and then parlayed his size, athletic strengths and a fortunate crossroads in hockey history into being drafted in 1974 by both the NHL's Vancouver Canucks and the upstart WHA's Vancouver Blazers. At six-foot-three and a presence near the net, he spent seven years in the NHL and was the first Canuck to score 40 goals in a season.
Mark Jooris, 59, the Cougars' head coach and general manager, used to watch Sedlbauer on the Cougars and later made the team himself, setting a franchise record of 86 points in 1981-82. He went on to a four-year NCAA career at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was third-leading scorer on a national championship team setting up future Hall of Famer Adam Oates. He was a multi-gifted player but at five-foot-10, in an NHL era when size counted far too much, his route was to become a dominant scorer in Finland, Germany and Switzerland, and in senior hockey with the Dundas Real McCoys, for whom he still held down a roster spot until he was 52 years old.
Each of them has felt the pride of their own son also playing for the Cougars. Mark Jooris was the coach in 2010 when future NHLer Josh Jooris shattered his father's record with a remarkable 116 points. Sedlbauer was already club president when Brendon Sedlbauer, a very talented goalie, made the team in the early 2000s. In hindsight, Ron says, I maybe erred on the side of caution too much and maybe didn't allow him the chance he would have got if he hadn't been named Sedlbauer."
Starting in the franchise's fledging years of the early 1950s, Walter Sedlbauer was the secretary-treasurer of the town junior team and his shoe company would quietly look after any unpaid expenses. Ron, like Jooris after him, grew up with Burlington junior hockey in his blood. When he returned to the city in the mid-1980s to run Cougar Shoes with his brother Steve, he knew that would involve recommitting to his old team, including squaring up budgeting shortfalls. He took the presidency in the late-1990s.
Having watched my dad, I guess when I came back I thought that was my job to give back," he says. Yes, there is the connection between the business and the team, which is a very positive one both ways. And we haven't shied away from paying the bills. We have always thought there was value to it. But beyond that there was a commitment to where I grew up and played my first hockey."
There is a palpable mutual respect between the two former Cougars. Sedlbauer, who has never had an interest in coaching, lauds how Jooris coaches and, along with assistant coach and general manager Kirby Tokarski, spends countless hours recruiting players. Jooris trusts Sedlbauer's dedication to creating a good fan, player and coaching experience.
After his European career, Jooris was a player-coach for the Real McCoys, then coached in Switzerland and scouted for the St. Louis Blues before coaching the Cougars for the first time in 2009-10. He then coached Markham and Oakville in the Ontario Junior Hockey League before returning to Burlington, where he was named the 2016 Ontario Hockey Association coach of the year.
I grew up when everyone wanted to be a Burlington Cougar," Jooris says. It'll be baby steps, but we want to back to where people in this community are excited to support the Cougars."
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com