This past Wednesday, the Perkin Hockey Group announced that after over 20 years, the Monroe Moccasins are back. I was able to speak with Managing Partner Parker Moskal.
Parker understands the struggles of starting a new FPHL team from scratch, after working in corporate sales last season for the expansion Baton Rouge Zydeco and knows it won’t be easy, “Last season was a lot of trial and error. Everybody made mistakes, some bigger than others.” He continued, “We worked through it and in the end, even though we didn’t make the playoffs we broke the league attendance record and I’m going to work hard to do that in Monroe.”
Baton Rouge will be their natural in-state rival and Moskal is looking forward to the first trip there next season, “I know it’ll be a hard battle, that arena is tough to play in, but we already know our fans will travel and they’re going to be loud.” He continued, “I have a good relationship with their fans from last season and I lived there all last season and still have a house there. They’ll always be respectful, in fact it’s been my favorite place I lived.”
One the most viral merchandise items is jerseys, Moccasins fans won’t have to wait long to buy theirs “Jerseys will be on sale in the next 2-3 weeks. We will have a form to customize your jersey with your name and number.” Moskal said, “Turn around has been an issue in the past with teams, ours will only be 5-8 weeks. That means there will be plenty of time to get yours before the season starts.”
Some skeptics have expressed doubts that this team will survive, Parker doesn’t think that’s going to be an issue. “Our ticket prices are actually comparable to the prices from the WPHL days. Our goal from the start was making sure it was affordable and focused on the community.” He said, “We want to get the fans on the ice with us as much as possible. We are so grateful and fortunate to be a part of this community and can’t wait to meet every single one of them.”
When asked why they chose Monroe and resurrected the Moccasins, it was a simple answer, “We looked at other cities, but there is an extremely popular Facebook group called Being Back the Monroe Moccasins. It was clear this community wanted hockey back. We saw potential for an amazing fan base based on that page. Once we decided on Monroe, bringing back the Moccasins was a no brainer, we didn’t even consider anything else. It was always the Moccasins.” He continued, “After meeting with Mayor Ellis, it quickly became the obvious choice. Mayor Ellis and his administration have been amazing. He’s one of the most down to earth public officials I’ve ever met who is determined to build this city into a thriving community. This wouldn’t be happening without his support.”
Danny Welch is one of the founders of that group, now named the Unofficial Monroe Moccasins Fan Group. He was surprised to find out his group helped bring hockey back. “Three years ago my friend and Moderator of the group Bradley Bettell was working in the civic center and claimed he had saw new hockey goals. That got my attention. Then we were playing hockey at skatetown one Sunday night and another friend, Philip Snow said he was hearing rumors of people asking for sponsorships for a hockey team. Again got my attention. Then the news reports came out about the Monroe Moccasins 20 year anniversary and I saw that as a sign that hockey might be coming back to Monroe so I started the group.” He continued, “Now it’s amazing because I didn’t know that this would ever be possible. Me and my other admins who helped, Brenton Creighton and Bradley, we’re so excited to know that we were part of bringing hockey back to Monroe. It’s what we grew up playing, it’s what we love. There’s nothing like the sport of hockey. No sport comes close. We’d like to thank Parker, Nic Perkin and Mayor Friday Ellis for making this, our 23 year old dream of seeing hockey back in the civic center, again come true. Thank You Mayor Ellis for bringing this community back together.”
Notes: As I’ve talked about in the past, travel has always been an issue in the FPHL, the Moccasins plan on chartering a new bus for their players, his exact words were “Our players will be traveling in comfort.”
Anybody looking to work for the Moccasins or have any questions feel free to email Parker at pmoskal@moccasinshockey.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.