John Denver must have foreseen the Blue Ridge Bobcats.
Just after the final horn sounded on April 13, signifying the end of the Wythe County team’s inaugural season in the Federal Prospects Hockey League, the Bobcats lingered on their home ice at the APEX Center.
The black-and-blue clad Bobcats had just taken their last bruise, an 8-2 loss to the Watertown (New York) Wolves that sealed the first-year club’s standing at the bottom of the 11-team professional league.
But instead of limping off the ice after the 40th defeat in 56 games, the players and coaches took a victory lap. With sticks raised, they saluted the crowd of 1,991 spectators who showed up for the season finale.
They slapped sticks on the ice, skated in circles and exchanged embraces. Then that late singer-songwriter’s unmistakable voice swirled around the arena, singing his Appalachian anthem, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
Familar? For sure.
Appropriate? Maybe, maybe not, considering that for several of these athletes who had come to the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, “home” means countries such as Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic and the war-torn lands of Ukraine and Russia.
Other Bobcats, ranging in age from 22 years to 37, came south from North American locales like Ontario, British Columbia, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
They all found themselves playing minor-league hockey for six months in Wytheville, Virginia, in a building where until late summer the floor was made out of dirt.
And how would just about all of them describe it?
Almost heaven.
* * *
The FPHL playoffs began April 20 without the Blue Ridge Bobcats.
It had taken just three games for the team to register the first victory in franchise history, a 5-4 overtime triumph Oct. 27 over the Motor City Rockers in Fraser, Michigan.
However, wins and win streaks were few from there. Aside from a four-game streak at midseason the expansion team posted consecutive victories on just two other occasions.
The Bobcats won 11 games in regulation, four in overtime and one in a shootout. They lost 33 games in regulation, and another seven in overtime, finishing with a league-low 50 points under the FPHL’s scoring formula.
The Wytheville team had an opportunity to pass Baton Rouge for fifth place in the six-team Continental Division heading into the season-ender at home against Watertown. Instead, the Bobcats fell behind the Wolves 3-0 after 20 minutes and allowed five goals in the third period, including two shorthanded goals with the final indignity coming with 18 seconds remaining in the game.
The Bobcats’ opening-night roster underwent an overhaul as head coach Vojtech “Zemmy” Zemlicka and Jimmy Milliken, executive vice president of operations, worked to increase the talent level.
It wasn’t easy. Blue Ridge’s leading scorer was Nikita Ivashkin, who joined the team in a February trade with Binghamton (New York) and ranked just 31st in the league with 48 total points. Ivashkin was 15th in goals with 27, but to find the next Bobcat on the list required a scroll down to No. 37, where Jakub Vulf hit the back of the net 18 times.
“Because it’s an expansion team, it’s been difficult to find the core of the team,” Zemlicka said. “It took us almost to the end of the season.”
The Bobcats struggled against the Continental Division leaders, going 1-12 against the Carolina Thunderbirds and 1-8 against the Columbus (Georgia) River Dragons. However, both victories occurred during the last two weeks of the season, a 2-1 win over Carolina at home and a 3-2 triumph at Columbus.
Two Bobcats — goalie Conner Green and defenseman Yegor Dolkart — were named to the FPHL’s All-Rookie team.
“When I got to the team, the team was already picked and you had a lot of doubt at the start,” said Zemlicka, a native of the Czech Republic and a former player and assistant coach with the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs.
“This is the closest I’ve been to a family on a hockey team. There’s no other group I’d rather finish the season with than these guys. It’s not the end we wanted, but the last couple months this team came a long way.”
Bobcats owner Barry Soskin keeps a different scoreboard. The Illinois businessman and Chicago Black Hawks season-ticket holder wants to win on the ice and off it.
Positive numbers for Soskin are the average attendance of 1,294 for 28 home games with a season-high of 2,046 against Carolina on Dec. 22, and a large number of local advertisers and sponsors who have signed up for the 2024-25 season.
“I’ve been involved in other leagues,” said Soskin, who owns at least four other FPHL franchises. “You want to know how many markets would love to have this? Do you know what this did for Wytheville, Wythe County as far as elevating them?
“There’s a lot of markets bigger than this that don’t have a pro ‘anything.’ This is a feather in their cap. This should up the quality of life for the people here.”
* * *
Soskin also is the president of Apex Drive Holdings LLC, which operates separately from the hockey team and hopes to attract concerts and other forms of entertainment such to Wythe County.
Call it the greatest show in Wythe.
When the Bobcats were out of town the weekend before the season ended, the APEX Center hosted a motorcycle race … on ice.
“Ice racing, sheet metal screws in the tires,” Soskin said. “There were almost a thousand people here eating that stuff up. As long as I continue bringing different things to the market, the building will see usage and everyone will be happy the building’s here.
“So far it’s been kind of a drain on taxpayers until this year. I think I put more events this year than the previous four years.”
Soskin has a 10-year renewable, escalating lease from Wythe County, which has made a considerable investment in the upgrades to the facility with more improvements to come. When Soskin wins at the box office, Wythe County also wins on its balance sheet.
“We’ve got a lease set up with a flat amount and a per-ticket amount that increases over the years as well,” said Wythe County Administrator Stephen Bear, who bought Bobcats season tickets to share with employees in his office. “The more successful they are, it helps us as well.
“From our side, it’s been very good. We’ve been very pleased with the sponsorship, very excited to see so many of the sponsors re-upping for next year. We’re looking forward to the next hockey season.”
So are locals Timothy Bolling, Cameron Parrish and Everett Lineberry, who were tailgating with a group of Bobcats’ fans outside the APEX Center before the final game.
The three co-owners of Seven Sisters Brewery in Wytheville were sporting green St. Patrick’s Day Bobcats game-worn jerseys they acquired in a team auction.
Bolling said he was not a hockey fan … until October.
“I never used to be a sports guy, but I love hockey now,” he said.
The local bar owner said he has been keeping close tabs on the players, many of whom live together in a building that basically serves as a makeshift dormitory a few doors down from his brewery. Bolling said the Bobcats frequent his business, as he does the hockey games.
“We try to make sure we stay open late and have little after-parties,” he said. “It’s been pretty successful and very well-visited.
“Not only that, but what they’re doing with the public schools. The Bobcats go out to the elementary schools and read to the kids. That’s really cool,” Bolling said.
Next season, “we plan on making a beer just for them [the Bobcats] from the brewery.”
And after a beer or two?
“It’s great to listen to them sing karaoke,” Parrish said.
Wytheville attorney Michael Sobey eagerly paid to have his law firm’s name plastered on one of the boards surrounding the Bobcats’ rink. He signed up as a sponsor for 2024-25 with the speed of a slap shot from the blue line.
“I was one of the first to re-up,” Sobey said. “I’ve enjoyed it. My wife and I are big fans. It’s fun. They’re very personable. The players interact with us. Good people, trying hard. It’s fun to watch.”
As Sobey spoke, a group of young hockey players mixed it up on the ice between periods. The sport is growing locally at the youth level.
“You’re really seeing a lot of kids getting excited about this,” he said. “The players have been involved with the kids as well, on the ice, off the ice. Wythe County has hockey fever right now.”
* * *
Soskin was slightly hot under the collar on opening night Oct. 20, and not because the Bobcats lost the inaugural game 5-3 to the visiting Mississippi Sea Wolves.
A logjam at the ticket windows delayed the start of the game as spectators stood in long lines outside the facility.
In assessing the entire 2023-24 Bobcats operation in mid-April, Soskin used the same description he uttered on opening night.
“Work in progress,” the owner said. “We have to do our job.”
Part of that job is improving the seating inside the APEX Center. By next season, Soskin said that 3,700 permanent seats on both sides of the arena will be elevated and will run from the rafters to the rink.
“The business and the fan support have exceeded what I thought the first year, considering the seats, they’re not the best view at all,” the owner said. “Next year we’re going to have almost 4,000 seats here which is going to change the whole look.
“See those people standing there [in front of the plexiglass]? I won’t have to yell at them for doing that, or yell at my people for allowing them to do that. Next year, there will be a seat there.”
Zemlicka will keep his seat on the Bobcats bench. The club wasted little time announcing that the 29-year-old head coach will return to Wytheville for a second season.
“I love his coaching,” Soskin said. “I love the fact he’s got the guys together, and they’re in the community and they’re doing that right. What I felt he lacked was at the beginning of the year recruiting a bigger team or one that was more bed-ready. Throughout the year he has made it bed-ready and I like that.”
While the Wytheville team’s roster had a foreign flavor, one player who really felt at home was Alex Norwinski, who not only played for the Blue Ridge Bobcats but lives in the Blue Ridge section of Botetourt County.
Norwinski used his connection with Zemlicka to join the Bobcats in February after he was released by the Rail Yard Dawgs. He was impressed during his six weeks on the job.
“I thought it was very professional from the get-go when I got here. The staff, they treat you as a professional. The way the team holds themselves to a high level of maturity, it’s very professional.”
Make no mistake, minor-league hockey is a tough gig.
Before his season ended with an injury, team captain Cody Oakes was earning $225 a week to play two games a week and make long road trips, such as a 1,100-mile, 14 1/2-hour trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. No Bobcat will ever forget a road trip to Columbus, Georgia, where bus problems forced an extended stay.
Norwinski often commutes to Wytheville from Roanoke, where the 27-year-old works part-time in his father’s insurance business. While he is 10 years younger than Bobcats elder statesman Josh Newberg, how much longer will he take painful forechecks for a minimal paycheck?
“In minor league hockey, your future is never certain,” he said.
* * *
After the Bobcats left the ice following their 8-2 loss to Watertown, Zemlicka had an extended postgame session with the players, some who likely will never again lace on hockey skates.
“I said to the guys, ‘The job is still undone,'” the coach related. “It’s going to be a long summer without hockey, but we’re looking forward to having this team back and continuing the progress.”
Exiting the locker room, the team signed autographs, posed for photographs and took part in a live charity auction where spectators bid on the jerseys the Bobcats wore during the final game, with price tags going into the $500 range. That’s right: Despite finishing in last place, these players gave the fans the shirts off their backs.
Zemlicka stood and listened to the fast-talking auctioneer with a curious sense of pride and wonder.
“Hockey in Virginia grows every year,” he said. “People don’t know much about hockey, but once you get them in, they absolutely fall in love with the game. Once we start having a consistent roster and people get to know the players and get to know us … that’s what I believe will happen here.”
| Final standings for Federal Prospects Hockey League | |||
| Team | Won | Lost | Points |
| Continental Division | |||
| Columbus | 45 | 11 | 134 |
| Carolina | 40 | 16 | 116 |
| Port Huron | 28 | 28 | 84 |
| Mississippi | 21 | 35 | 61 |
| Baton Rouge | 16 | 40 | 51 |
| Blue Ridge (Wytheville) | 16 | 40 | 50 |
| Empire Division | |||
| Binghamton | 39 | 17 | 120 |
| Motor City | 33 | 23 | 97 |
| Danbury | 31 | 25 | 90 |
| Watertown | 19 | 37 | 61 |
| Elmira | 20 | 36 | 60 |
BOBCATS vs. OPPONENTS
Baton Rouge…..7-3
Motor City……3-7
Mississippi…..2-4
Port Huron……1-1
Watertown…….1-1
Columbus……..1-8
Carolina……..1-12
Danbury………0-2
Elmira……….0-2
Binghamton……DNP
BOBCATS RESULTS
Record: 16-40
Home: 9-19; Away: 7-21
OT wins: 4; Shootout wins: 1
OT losses: 7
October
L — Mississippi, 5-3
L — Mississippi, 4-3, OT
W — at Motor City, 5-4, OT
L — at Motor City, 4-3
November
L — Carolina, 4-1
L — at Carolina, 4-1
L — Mississippi, 6-3
W — Mississippi, 12-5
L — at Carolina, 8-1
L — Carolina, 4-3
L — at Baton Rouge, 4-3, OT
W — at Baton Rouge, 3-2
December
L — Columbus, 6-4
L — Columbus, 5-3
L — at Baton Rouge, 5-2
W — at Baton Rouge, 4-3, ot
W — at Baton Rouge, 2-0
L — at Columbus, 4-0
L — Carolina, 5-0
January
L — at Columbus, 4-2
L — at Columbus, 7-0
L — at Mississippi, 7-2
L — at Carolina, 5-4, OT
W — Motor City, 7-1
L — Motor City 4-2
L — Columbus, 4-3, OT
L — Columbus, 4-3, OT
L — at Motor City, 4-1
L — at Motor City, 5-2
W — at Motor City, 4-2
February
W — Baton Rouge, 6-2
W — Baton Rouge, 3-2, OT
W — Baton Rouge, 4-1
L — Carolina, 3-1
L — at Carolina, 4-1
L — at Elmira, 3-2
L — at Elmira, 4-2s
W — Mississippi, 3-2, OT
L — Baton Rouge, 3-2
W — Baton Rouge, 6-2
March
L — at Motor City, 3-2
L — at Motor City, 6-2
L — at Port Huron, 6-2
W — at Port Huron, 4-2
L — at Motor City, 4-1
L — Carolina, 4-2
L — Carolina, 5-4
L — Carolina, 6-2
L — Danbury, 2-1, OT
L — Danbury, 5-2
L — at Carolina, 5-0
W — Carolina, 2-1
April
L — at Columbus, 5-2
W — at Columbus, 3-2
W — Watertown, 4-2
L — Watertown, 8-2