OLDS — The Olds Grizzlys are looking for billets as the 2025-26 season looms ever closer.
Training camp ran Aug. 12-14. The team's first of five exhibition games begins Aug. 30 in Calgary, and its season begins on the road Sept. 19 in Drayton Valley.
“Every year we tend to struggle to find billets. I don't know, It just takes people a while to get convinced, I guess,” Grizzlys office manager and billet coordinator Julie Johnston said during an interview with the Albertan.
“We need a room for each player to hopefully have at least one home cooked meal a day, and game day meals are always a bonus for the guys.”
Johnston said those places don’t necessarily have to be single-detached homes. They can be apartments, condos, whatever.
“They can be whatever you have, as long as you have a room for them, like they have their own home bedroom," she said. "We've had people that are in trailers and one that was in a condo unit and that kind of thing.
“We just want homes that accept them and treat them like, kind of their own, in one sense.”
The Grizzlys have raised the stipend they pay to billet families to help cover expenses. It’s now $650 a month for each player.
And there are other rewards for billeting players.
For one thing, the players and the families get to know each other. Also, the Grizzlys give billet families tickets to certain games and they receive discounts at the merch booth throughout the season.
Johnston has been serving as billet coordinator for about five years now.
