BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
Joe Drago never gets tired of receiving accolades, especially when the recognition is coming from a hockey organization.
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Joe Drago was honoured recently as a lifetime member of the Canadian Junior ?A? Hockey League (CJAHL). Drago is a founding member of the league. |
It?s through his devotion to hockey in Northern Ontario and hockey in general that Drago was honoured recently as a lifetime member of the Canadian Junior ?A? Hockey League (CJAHL). Drago is a founding member of the CJAHL. A special tribute was paid to him at the 10th anniversary meeting. Drago was also presented with a commemorative ring.
For a man that has done it all in hockey and life, the recognition came as a shock.
?It was a tremendous surprise,? said Drago, who some consider ?Mr. Hockey? in this community. ?I am honoured and it?s one of my highlights in my career. There?s nothing nicer to be recognized by your colleagues and peers.?
Drago, 64, has had quite the trip. He has been involved in hockey since he was a kid. He played hockey at Clarkson University from 1959-63. After teacher?s college, Drago went to Lasalle Secondary School and worked in the guidance department. In his first year there, he coached the high school hockey team. They won the senior boy?s city championship.
Drago then joined the Sudbury Cubs junior ?B? team in the NOHA as coach, GM and director of hockey operations. In his first year, the Cubs won the NOHA championship.
He then started a 17-year relationship with the Sudbury Wolves, serving as coach, GM, president, governor, director of hockey operations and part owner.
Drago then became the first commissioner of the NOJHL, where he became an integral part of cleaning up the league?s tarnished image and establishing its reputation as a vibrant, productive league. He sat as commissioner for 12 years.
It was here as NOJHL commissioner, Drago began his crusade to put Northern Ontario hockey and its players on the map to respectability.
?While serving as NOJHL commissioner, I always felt the North wasn?t getting any recognition or respect,? said Drago. ?I thought I could help change the attitude towards the North.?
Drago attended Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) meetings as an observer. Eventually OHF members approached him and asked Drago to run for junior counsel chairman. He did, and was elected. Drago currently serves as vice-president of the OHF.
Accolades aside, Drago is still on a mission to propel Northern Ontario hockey players into the limelight of the hockey world.
?There?s still a feeling in the United States that the North is too far out of the way for people to come see players,? said Drago. ?I think we have made people realize it?s not a waste of time to come up here and that?s good for the North. The North is in there with everybody else in the OHF too. We?re not taking a back seat.?
Drago doesn?t buy into the philosophy kids from the North, especially Sudbury, have to leave town to get noticed by scouts.
?If you?re a good hockey player, you will be seen,? said Drago. ?Scouts are everywhere now. The exposure is there.?
With a lifetime of memories, Drago still fondly remembers his time coaching hockey at the high school level.
?High school hockey gave me the most gratification because of the kids,? said Drago. ?The way the kids respond
to you was amazing at that level. The support I got from those guys on and off the ice is still something I think about today.?
Current Sudbury Wolves head coach and general manager Mike Foligno and current Washington Capitals? assistant coach Randy Carlyle, both former Wolves? legends in the seventies, are two men Drago enjoyed working with in junior hockey.
?Both of these guys never forgot where they came from,? said Drago. ?They always gave back to the community.?
For now, Drago will stay on with the OHF and continue to enjoy life in the North.
?I am not ready to pull the plug because I still love hockey,? said Drago. ?Now I have two granddaughters, so that
has given me a new lease on life.?
