OHL: Stewart’s return to Barrie evokes memories of tarnished title

Bill Stewart returning to Barrie is about more than debating the statute of limitations on a coach's wrongdoing. It really comes down to defining what the cost of the misdeeds the current Guelph Storm assistant coach was involved in with the infamous 1999-2000 Barrie Colts was to the franchise and its fanbase.

It's a well-trod subject, to be sure. It's fresh since Stewart is back at the Barrie Molson Centre for the first time since returning to the OHL for tonight's Storm-Colts game and friend of BTN Gene Pereira, the long-time Barrie beat writer, wrote a cracking good column about it. The easy way out would have been to rhyme off everything that went down in Barrie 12 years ago — smuggling Vladimir Chernenko across the U.S. border in the luggage hold of the bus, the team showing up Canadian Hockey League president David Branch with a walkout at a Memorial Cup banquet and so on. Pereira, though, pointed out that everything that happened essentially robbed Colts fans and perhaps even team staff and players of getting the full enjoyment out of that championship season. Maybe not at time, but certainly down the line.

For all one who's never played the game knows, the members of that season's Colts might not have any bittersweet memories of that time. They pulled off what every junior player dreams of doing, winning a league championship, end of story, correct?

Of course, an OHL championship isn't just about what it means at the time to someone is 19 or 20 years old and living in the moment. The credit goes to those who are in the arena, but there are older people behind the scenes who share in it as well. For the athletes, winning a championship at that age in sports is also about what it will come to mean over time, once middle age sets in and you can no longer play. (Bruce Springsteen might have written a song along that theme at some point.) It's not even a subtext in junior hockey, it's just text, period, that this is as good as it will ever get for the vast majority of players who sacrifice so much for each other. One wonders about the supporting players on those 2000 Colts who, being young and in fear of crossing authority, had to go along to get along with Stewart and the Brampton Boys such as Sheldon Keefe and Mike Jefferson (now Danton). One should not try to guess how each player views that period, but it might not be as unequivocally positive as it would be for someone from the 1999 Belleville Bulls or 2001 Ottawa 67's.

Bill Stewart was not responsible for all of that, of course. It was a dark chapter for the entire OHL. It is understandable if people who were around the league then and still are today still are skeptical.

Being based on the other side of the league, I will not profess to know what it's been like in Guelph this season. On the surface, the Storm under head coach Scott Walker and Stewart are punching their weight after being practically everyone's default choice to join the Erie Otters as the Western Conference's non-playoff team. Defenceman Matt Finn is blossoming into a bona fide first-round NHL choice and forwards Tanner Richard and Scott Kosmachuk could also be high picks this summer. Stewart seems to be making good on his second chance, but no one will forget why it's classified as such.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.