Ontario side of Soo Eagles
Under the no nonsense leadership of long time president and general manager Bruno Bragagnolo the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League are a model franchise that is based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And while Bragagnolo and the majority of the players and volunteers are American citizens, the Eagles also have a significant Canadian presence from across the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Sault, Ontario residents who are a big part of the Michigan based Eagles include forward Coulson Bell, defensemen Cole Wreggitt and Liam Watson, head coach Jeremy Rebek, assistant coaches Joey Miller, Blake Speers and Kelsey Wilson, goalie coach Donnie Bruni and off ice trainers Ken Belanger and Mike Barbeau.
Bragagnolo, as the boss of the Eagles, had plenty to say to Hockey News North about his team’s Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario connection.
“First off, all three of the boys, Bell, Wreggitt and Watson, have a great work ethic and an attitude that drives them to learn and keep getting better to achieve their goals. All three are very skilled and have an ability to eventually be impact players on our team,” Bragagnolo began.
“As for the coaching staff with Rebek at the helm along with Joey Miller, Kelsey Wilson, Blake Speers and Donnie Bruni, they have been exceptional in every way possible. I don’t think there is any aspect of the game that they don’t cover.
“Also, Ken Belanger and Mike Barbeau have been doing a great job with their off ice training. I truly think we have one of the best overall coaching staffs around. They are very professional and pay attention to every detail possible. I am very impressed by all of them,” added Bragagnolo.
As players, Bell, Wreggitt and Watson were all teammates with the Soo Jr. Greyhounds of the Great North Under 18 Hockey League in ’23-24. All are young as Bell has a 2007 birth date while Wreggitt and Watson were both born in 2008. Additionally, Wreggitt (fourth round to the Sudbury Wolves) and Watson (14th round to the North Bay Battalion) were both picked at the 2024 Ontario Hockey League priority selections draft.
Over to the coaches, they have varied high end hockey backgrounds.
As an assistant coach with the Soo Thunderbirds prior to being hired as the Eagles bench boss during this off season, the now 48 year old Rebek was part of three NOJHL championship teams as a chief strategist.
During his playing days, Rebek first left his Sault Ste. Marie home as a 17 year old in what was the beginning of what would be three seasons as an overachieving defenseman with the Owen Sound Platers of the OHL. A ninth round pick by Owen Sound at the 1995 OHL priority selections draft, Rebek would go on to suit up in 201 games for the Platers and total 27 goals, 113 assists, 140 points as a rock solid, 5 foot 11, 185 pound defender.
Then came a long and winding professional hockey career that would eventually lead Rebek to Austria, Northern Ireland and Italy before finally retiring as a player at the age of 37. Those 17 years of next level hockey also included time with the Laurentian University Voyageurs in Sudbury and various minor pro outposts with teams such as the Missouri River Otters, Toledo Storm, Kansas City Blades, Mississippi Sea Wolves, Rockford Ice Hogs, Milwaukee Admirals and Chicago Wolves before heading off to see more of the world.
Meanwhile, the 27 year old Speers and the 38 year old Wilson are both former star forwards from their OHL playing days.
Speers played parts of four seasons with the Soo Greyhounds and totalled 94 goals after being a first round pick by his hometown team. He became captain of the Greyhounds and was selected to play for Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships. The recently retired Speers went on to play five seasons in the American Hockey League and got into five NHL games before playing in Sweden and Ireland.
Wilson played in three OHL seasons divided between the Sarnia Sting and Guelph Storm. He ended his OHL career with Guelph in ’05-06 by scoring 50 goals in 82 games — regular season and playoffs included — while racking up 229 minutes in penalties.
The 29 year old Miller has deep ties to the NOJHL as both a top forward and most recently an assistant coach with the Soo Thunderbirds.
Meanwhile, the 38 year old Bruni was a good goalie for a number of teams in various junior leagues including one season with the Blind River Beavers of the NOJHL.
As for the 50 year old Belanger, he played three years in the OHL as a third and fourth line winger with the Ottawa 67’s and Guelph Storm, never scoring more than 16 goals in a season. But he made his 6 foot 4, 220 pound presence known as a fearsome fighter who backed away from absolutely no one.
Belanger’s fighting fame, along with resolve, determination and an ability to contribute at the highest of levels of the game led to the soft spoken kid from Sault Ste. Marie’s west end playing in no less than 260 games in the NHL, toughing it out for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders, Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings.
To be sure, while they certainly have a strong base in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the Eagles are quite the Twin Sault program thanks as well to their Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario subsistence. It figures to serve the Eagles very well over the course of this ’24-25 NOJHL season.
In all my years of watching hockey, I have never seen anything so disrespectful and out right churlish when the Soo Thunderbirds would not come on the ice for the Sudbury Cubs banner raising on opening night. The coaches and staff should be ashamed of themselves and face consequences for their actions. They are supposed to be developing good men and respectful human beings in society as much as they are developing hockey players.