Why did U16 Sun County fold?
It was only a year ago that three forwards from the Under 16 level Sun County Panthers of the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario went in the first three rounds of the 2025 Ontario Hockey League priority selections draft — Jaako Wycisk to the Guelph Storm (first round), Eamon Edgar to the Barrie Colts (second round) and Brayden Lappalainen to the Flint Firebirds (third round.) A year later, Sun County has folded its AAA U16 program ahead of the ’26-27 Alliance Hockey season.
Why did Sun County shut down its U16 program a year after having a total of seven players taken at the 2025 OHL Draft?
Yes, why?
For starters, in their last on-ice session before folding — April 21 to be exact — Sun County was set in the net with AAA calibre goalies and also had 15 skaters present. But according to Sun County team officials, not all of the AAA calibre skaters were committed to signing with the Panthers and were looking to potentially play elsewhere in Ontario. The next day, Sun County made what it called a “difficult decision” to fold its U16 program for the ’26-27 Alliance Hockey season.
To be sure, Sun County had full intentions to ice a U16 team for the ’26-27 season. Back in the middle of February, Sun County announced its coaches at the various levels for the ’26-27 season, including young Zack Gervais — who was finishing up a successful run as the bench boss for the Amherstburg Admirals of the Provincial Jr. Hockey League — as the head coach of the U16 Panthers.
But somewhere along the line, factions were at work that would play a role in the eventual folding of the U16 Panthers.
It began when BioSteel Sports Academy — an independent program which is based in Windsor — recruited several 2011 birth year players who were slated to move up to the U16 Windsor Jr. Spitfires for the ’26-27 season. And the U16 Jr. Spitfires in turn, under recently signed head coach Mark Turner, ended up bringing aboard no less than nine players from their cross-town Alliance Hockey rivals from Sun County.
Did BioSteel play by the rules in raiding players from the Jr. Spitfires program? Did the U16 Jr. Spitfires — and their coach Turner — play by the rules in poaching players from Sun County prior to the recent April tryouts?
It is always hard to prove impropriety in hockey. Players and their parents are mostly reluctant, for fear of repercussion, to say anything on the record if asked by — in this case — Ontario Hockey Federation officials if they were tampered with by a coach.
This much we have been told — and that is, Sun County has filed a tampering charge against aforementioned U16 Windsor head coach Mark Turner. And Hockey Alliance is reportedly reaching out to the OHF and Hockey Canada and asking them to conduct a review as to how BioSteel goes about its business.
As they say in the radio business: stay tuned.
