You have to have at least some understanding of what the Backmeyer family has been through over most of the past six years to understand what they are going through right now.
Oh, things continue to go swimmingly as Ferris, 6, continues to make progress from a kidney transplant at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto four weeks ago.
However, Lindsey, Ferris’s mother, just can’t shake that feeling that things have been going too well. With all that she, husband Pat and the three girls have dealt with they now find themselves in a whole different world.
The emotion was raw as Lindsey explained what she is going through. She admitted to being confused because things have been going so smoothly. She just isn’t used to this. Will she be able to get used to it?
“So many feelings,” Lindsey wrote on Facebook. “All the excitement over the reality that we are here. The fear of it all falling apart. It’s just been such a drastic change so fast, so unreal and truly unbelievable. With this gift comes tremendous responsibility.
“I’m anxious (and am) genuinely shocked with every set of labs. Waiting for the (other) shoe to drop. But so far nope! No complications??? I’m confused. It’s just so incredibly foreign to us for things to be smooth for this long. It’s an odd struggle to have to manage.
“Anyone who knows transplant knows that rejection meds given on time is super important. Our med schedule and life schedule (still some really late nights) are so messed up that we set alarms to give 8 a.m. meds. I don’t sleep well at all. Waking hourly most nights because I’m worried I’m gonna sleep through the alarm! Anyone who knows me knows that’s a real possibility!!”
But, as she added, “Those are small potatoes for worries though these days.”
There are, as she notes, “so many reasons to be smiling these days.”
As mentioned, things are going great with Ferris, and her big sisters — Tavia, 11, and Ksenia, 9 — have returned from the trip they made to California with Lindsey’s mother. So the family is back together and preparing for the next chapter.
Now it’s a matter of having all of Ferris’s tests in order and getting the OK to head west.
“Today,” Lindsey wrote on Thursday, “we had labs and ultrasound! We knew that if results were good, we’d get the green flag to transfer back to (BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver) next week! Labs were awesome! Ultrasound looked better!
“Unless something major develops between now and then, we are leaving Toronto next Thursday! Whoop whoop! Only disappointing thing is that we’ve been told that (Ronald McDonald House) in Vancouver is full until Aug. 15 . . . ughhhh. I’m not gonna dwell on it. Hoping we can get in sooner than that.
“I advocated hard for a suitable accommodation for us. But as of yet am unsure where we will be staying. Just throwing it out there that this sorts itself out. That we belong at (Ronald McDonald House) BC, that going home is not really home if we are moving to Vancouver and staying somewhere else. That all the good luck we’ve had recently continues and it doesn’t end up being as bad as it feels.”
In the meantime, the Backmeyers will try to make the best of what they hope will be their last weekend in Toronto.
“We had originally planned to try to escape the city for the weekend,” Lindsey wrote, “but have instead decided to stick around and cram in the last of the ‘Toronto’ things we wanted to do. One more week and hopefully we are wrapping up this chapter . . . the best one yet!”
No one follows goings-on in the BCHL any closer than does Brian Wiebe who operates the BCHL Network (bchlnetwork.ca) and tweets at @Brian_Wiebe.
The piece he wrote on Tuesday after BC Hockey replaced junior B hockey with Junior A Tier 1 and Junior A Tier 2 is the best that I have seen on the subject.
You are able to read it right here, and you should if you are following all that is happening with this file.
It is evident that, from a BC Hockey perspective, all of this is a work in progress.
As Cam Hope, BC Hockey’s CEO put it in Wiebe’s story: “It’s in progress right now, but I can give you the broad parameters of some of the things. Around officiating, I think all the leagues are committed to going to a four-person system. We have to watch the landscape a little bit this year, some officials have left and gone non-sanctioned with the BCHL.
“The things you might expect — standards (like) coaching certifications, some standards around player experience having to do with committed dressing rooms, facilities and most importantly around practices — practice quality, practice volume, (and) travel. (It’s) the usual check checklist for any league, but the details of it are something that we’re all working on together.
“We want to be mindful of the fact that this is pretty quick for some of these franchises, and some are far ahead of others. It’s a work in progress, but yeah, it’s a pretty long list, but it’s little by little we’re going to get there.”
The one thing that I found most interesting in Wiebe’s piece is that Hope has left the door open for any of the BCHL’s 17 teams to return to BC Hockey.
“There are some communities around B.C. that felt Junior A was maybe just a little bit out of reach,” Hope said. “There are some communities in northern B.C. with good arenas and great fan support that did not have a league to play in at a Junior A or Junior B level. And there are some clubs now that are playing non-sanctioned junior hockey this year in the BCHL and elsewhere that may want to have a place to return to sanctioned hockey.
“Getting the ecosystem set the way that we’re setting it this year I think solved all of those problems if and when they start to arrive. When I say problems, they’re good problems and that’s communities that want to come in and join what we’re trying to do here.”
There is a whole lot more to Wiebe’s piece, so give it a read and you’ll have a good understanding of just what is happening.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS:
The Red Deer Rebels have acquired F Carson Latimer, 20, from the Wenatchee Wild for a couple of WHL draft picks, a fifth in 2024 and a conditional third in 2025. . . . According to Wild, the third-rounder is conditional upon Latimer’s reporting to Red Deer. He was a fourth-round pick by the Ottawa Senators in the NHL’s 2021 draft. . . . Latimer, from White Rock, B.C., was a third-round selection by the Edmonton Oil Kings in the 2018 draft. He has put up 97 points, including 38 goals, in 143 regular-season games split among the Oil Kings, Prince Albert Raiders and Winnipeg Ice. . . . Last season, with the Ice, had had 14 goals and 26 assists in 53 games. . . . After the trade, Alan Caldwell (@smallatlarge) tweeted: “According to my spreadsheet, the 2024 5th and 2025 3rd that Wenatchee got from Red Deer for Latimer are now Wenatchee’s highest picks in both those drafts.” . . .
The Everett Silvertips have acquired 2003-born F Teague Patton from the Victoria Royals for a fourth-round selection in the WHL’s 2026 draft. . . . Patton, from Kelowna, had 16 goals and 33 assists in 68 games with the Royals last season. . . . He played in 78 games over three seasons (2019-22) with the Medicine Hat Tigers, putting up 25 points, including 12 goals. . . . After moving Patton, the Royals, according to play-by-play man Marlon Martens, still have six 20-year-olds on their roster — F Matthew Hodson, G Braden Holt, F Grady Lane, D Gannon Laroque, F Justin Lies and D Luke Rybinski. The Royals acquired Lane from the Spokane Chiefs on June 27, and got Lies from the Saskatoon Blades on June 2. . . .
F Sam Honzek of the Vancouver Giants has signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Calgary Flames, who selected him with the 16th pick of the NHL’s 2023 draft. . . . Honzek, from Slovakia, had 23 goals and 33 assists in 43 games as a freshman with the Giants last season. He also played for Slovakia in the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship. . . . Honzek, who will turn 19 on Nov. 12, will be back with the Giants for the 2023-24 season, unless, of course, he cracks the Flames’ roster. . . . Interestingly, he went by Samuel last season, but judging by the Flames’ announcement on Tuesday, he now is going by Sam. . . .
The Lethbridge Hurricanes and 106.7 ROCK have agreed to a four-year contract extension that will have the radio station as the home to game broadcasts through the 2026-27 season. . . . They have been broadcast partners for the past nine seasons, starting with 2014-15. . . .
The Seattle Thunderbirds will retire F Patrick Marleau’s No. 12 on Nov. 3 prior to a game against the Spokane Chiefs. Marleau, from Aneroid, Sask., played two seasons (1995-97) with the Thunderbirds, totalling 199 points, including 83 goals, in 143 regular-season games. He is the NHL’s all-time leader in regular-season games played (1,779) after skating with the San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . Marleau will be the second Seattle player to have his number retired. The Thunderbirds honoured F Glen Goodall (No. 10) in 1990. . . .
The junior B Keystone Junior Hockey League has added a seventh franchise by granting one to the Waywayseecappo First Nation, which is located near Russell, Man. . . . The team will begin play in 2023-24 and will play as the Waywayseecappo Wild.
THE COACHING GAME:
The WHL’s Wenatchee Wild has rounded out its coaching staff with the hiring of Andrew Sarauer as an assistant coach. Sarauer, a 38-year-old from Saskatoon, has retired as a player after spending 15 seasons in the ECHL, AHL and Europe. . . . He played with the BCHL’s Victoria Salsa and Langley Hornets before spending four seasons at Northern Michigan U. . . . In Wenatchee, he will be working with head coach Kevin Constantine and associate head coach Chris Clark. . . . Sarauer played nine seasons with Fehérvár AV19 in Hungary. Constantine was the head coach there for the last two of those seasons.
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If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:
Living Kidney Donor Program
St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre
Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182
kidneydonornurse@vch.ca
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Or, for more information, visit right here.
province and Yukon, all of this obviously in response to the BCHL’s departure having left the jurisdiction without a junior A league.
in front of us, whether it be with our health and safety, our education, our facilities or our level of coaching,” Storm general manager Matt Kolle told Kamloops This Week.“In the last two seasons, we’ve carried 97 per cent B.C. players. In my mind, we’re meeting the criteria by a landslide.
process, we looked at the number of players who have left B.C. over the past number of years to play junior A hockey elsewhere in Canada and the United States. Our goal is to provide the type of athlete experience that incentivizes those athletes to grow and develop their game without having to look outside their home province.”
Konowalchuk who left the organization after his second season with the team. . . . Walser, 45, had been an assistant coach with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes since 2017. The Petes won the OHL title last season. . . . As a player, he spent five seasons in the QMJHL, split between the Beauport Harfangs and Rimouski Oceanic. He then went on to a 19-season professional career before turning to coaching. The coaching career began with the Belfast Giants of the Elite Ice Hockey League where he was the playing head coach for two seasons. . . . The Rebels’ news release is right here.
Vancouver Giants after five seasons with the team. Ewen wrote that “multiple sources” indicated that Dyck will be joining the Toronto Marlies, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, as an assistant coach. . . . Dyck took over as the Giants’ head coach for the 2018-19 season and guided them to the WHL final where they lost Game 7, 3-2 in OT, to the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Ewen’s complete story is 
leading candidate would appear to be Brad Herauf, an assistant coach with the team since 2015-16. From Regina, he spent two seasons as head coach of the U18 AAA Regina Pat Canadians before joining the Pats as an assistant coach. . . . John Paddock, the Pats’ vice-president of hockey operations, general manager and head coach, announced his retirement on Monday. Alan Millar now is the vice-president of hockey ops and GM.
The Backmeyers — Pat, Lindsey’s husband, and their two other daughters, Tavia and Ksenia — are from Kamloops. They have been in Toronto for a month. Ferris, who was diagnosed with kidney disease early in her young life, underwent a transplant overnight on June 29 at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
TAKING NOTE 