Changing of the guard in the Kokanee organizing committee
David F. Rooney, Editor


Mark McKee is on the way out

He has been chairman for 15 years and in that time Mark McKee has seen the annual Kokanee Glacier Challenge slowpitch baseball tournament evolve into one of the most successful events of its kind in Western Canada, but now he is calling it quits.
The local businessman and community leader is leaving gracefully, confident that the Kokanee tourney is in the capable hands of his successor — Alan Chell.

“Fifteen years seem like a nice even number,” McKee said in an interview last month. “Everything is running smoothly. We have found a formula that works well and now anybody can step in and run this thing. Alan Chell has agreed to step in as tentative chairman… and I’ll be around to help out, but it’s time to move on.”

The tournament has grown to the point that it now attracts teams from across Western Canada and even parts of the Northwestern United States.

“We have always tried to make it bigger and better — and when I say that I mean it quality-wise,” McKee said.

Perhaps the tournament’s best quality is that it draws together service clubs and different non-profit groups. The Rotary Club is running the beer gardens. Proceeds from the associated golf tournament — a new addition to the Kokanee — go to the women’s shelter this year. The ski patrol society is operating the first aid stand, the high school athletic teams are being paid to maintain the ball fields and the West Kootenay select soccer team group is running the campground.

“The profits are shared with groups that need it,” McKee said. “The tournament committee doesn’t make a lot of money.”

But like the Energizer bunny it keeps on going and going.
 


Alan Chell is on the way in

But there has been a dark side to some of the tournament’s growth pangs. Last year there were a couple of fights in the beer garden. They were broken up, but it told McKee and other organizers that the Kokanee’s Age of Innocence was over. So this year the organizing committee has hired International Crowd Management to handle security. (For more information, click here)

“We have to protect the folks who are there to have fun and we have to protect our own people,” McKee said. “We rely on volunteers and they don’t sign on to break up bar brawls. Nobody wants to do it. We only had a couple of incidents last year but that was enough to make us ask, “Hey! What’s going on?”

The professional security will be polite and unobtrusive but firm and knows exactly what to do in case of trouble — something no one wants.
As far as McKee is concerned last year’s incidents were isolated events that are unlikely to be repeated.

“This is about people getting together to play ball and have a good time,” he said. “That’s what we’re known for and that’s what we give people.”