On the Silvertips’ trail

Frankie Wilbanks was one of 40 Everett Silvertips faithful who boarded a bus at 10 a.m. Saturday for a 19-hour round trip to Kelowna, B.C.

Wearing a green Silvertips T-shirt and silver bear-claw earrings, Wilbanks joined the others who knew full well that the club’s record-breaking inaugural year could be over when the bus returned home early Sunday morning.

The team trailed 3-1 in the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals heading into Game 5 against the Kelowna Rockets.

Wilbanks, a 61-year-old widow from Arlington, talks about her family: her three grown children and five grandchildren, and the under-21 hockey team she says is made up of her adopted grandchildren, if only in her heart.

"I feel bad for the boys," Wilbanks said about the team’s teetering on the edge of playoff elimination. "But I also wouldn’t miss this trip for the world, because I know it can be their last game."

Also boarding the bus was Jordan Willard-Park, 18. She is friends with some players who attend Everett High School with her. Willard-Park says she’s "best friends" with Ryan Blatchford, a 19-year-old defenseman from Kelvington, Saskatchewan, but it’s clear there’s something more there. When the season ends, he goes home.

There was David Castle, otherwise known as David the bus driver, who was just doing his job. Having already driven most of the same bunch to a playoff game in Vancouver, B.C., the 33-year-old from Puyallup was already a fan of the team he’d never seen play. He didn’t know there was a game ticket waiting for him in Kelowna.

And there were many others, who, for their own reasons, jumped on Gray Lines charter bus No. 6543 for a 600-mile journey across the border, stopping along the way for lunch in a town called Hope.

Frankie Wilbanks has been a hockey fan since she rooted for her hometown Portland Buckaroos, a team that spent 14 years in the Western Hockey League, from 1960 to 1974. She’d been to a couple of Seattle Thunderbirds over the years to scratch her hockey itch, but isn’t much into taking on the big city. When news arrived about the Silvertips coming to town, her devotion quickly followed.

She tried to get a part-time job working security at the Everett Events Center, but discovered a back problem during the arena’s opening night celebration and couldn’t keep working there.

"So I bought a season ticket, and I’ve only missed one (home) game — when I had my knee surgery," she said.

Wilbanks’ feelings about this team become clear at Rolly’s Restaurant in Hope, B.C. Cashier and hostess Jackie Nicholson, besieged by about half of the busload during the lunch hour, asks, "Do you have any kids on the team?"

"They’re all our kids," Wilbanks replies without hesitation. "All 24 of them."

Her collection of Silvertips memorabilia includes a stick signed by Jeff Schmidt, pucks signed by Bryan Nathe, Jeff Harvey and Mitch Love, and a Love-autographed jersey, her prized possession, "because someday he’s going to be a pro."

Wilbanks, a rest home nurse who enjoys going on road trips with other fans and has met many of the players’ parents, fully acknowledges the place the team fills in her heart.

"I’d like to host a player," she said, referring to the team’s need for families to house players during the season. "But I work too much, so I try to be supportive in the best way I can."

As the bus rolls across the Coquihalla Highway, a toll route that passes through a snow-covered mountain range, Wilbanks talks about the road trips she’s taken to see the Tips. She went to Portland once and Seattle twice on her own, headed up to Vancouver twice and saw two back-to-back games on a trip to Kelowna the previous week.

"If they happen to pull this off," she said. "I’m taking a vacation and going to the Memorial Cup."

In the back row of the bus, Jordan Willard-Park sits with 15-year-old friends Andrea Anderson and Catriona Dearing. She’s not sure how she wound up sharing the ride with people old enough to be her parents, or grandparents, but she’s enjoying it.

"I feel kind of lost and confused," Willard-Park said.

She’s there because she feels the team needs her. She also knows that some players aren’t feeling great about their chances after falling further behind in the series with a 4-3 loss at home Thursday.

"They’re pretty bummed about it," she said. "They knew they needed that game Thursday."

She made the trip to Kelowna for Games 1 and 2 of the series the previous week, and knows what to expect from the 6,200-strong home crowd.

"It’s nice to support them, because this is a full arena," she said. "And it’s kind of intimidating the way (the players) come out, with this dragon and all this smoke. It scared us."

Since the players showed up in Everett about seven months ago, Willard-Park has become friends with some of the team members, Blatchford in particular. The players — all but three of whom are from Canada — will return home when the season ends.

"I don’t want him to leave," Jordan said.

He’s written down the mileage on the odometer, checked his mirrors and pulled the bus away from Everett Station. But it’s soon obvious this is better than just another bus run for David Castle — and not just because he’ll get to buy some coffee at his favorite stop, Tim Hortons, a Canadian coffee and baked-goods chain.

Castle chuckles at funny lines during the en-route movie, Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson’s "Anger Management," and listens for the responses to the trivia questions, asked by Silvertips Booster Club president Ron Olsen. Some of the questions are serious — What are the dimensions of regulation hockey rink? (200 feet by 85 feet). Others aren’t quite so — Which eye does the referee see out of? (Neither).

The trivia eventually ends and the discussion turns to the Silvertips’ chances of continuing the series, and ultimately moving on in the playoffs.

"They’ve got to win," Castle says, "so I can keep driving you guys."

Nancy Joao, 58, of Lake Stevens has been a baseball fan for years, holding season tickets for the Everett AquaSox. When the Tips came to town, she figured she’d give the new local team a shot and bought season tickets.

"I’m hooked," she said.

She’s been to many games with her daughter and son-in-law, but made the bus trip alone because her family had other plans and couldn’t make it.

"I’d rather be here than listening to it on the radio," she said. "It’s a game. I’ll be really unhappy if they lose, and it will be a quiet bus on the way home. But to get this far in their first year is not bad at all. I just kind of want to be a part of it."

Monica Jones, 35, of Lake Stevens took the bus with a couple of friends. Between the second and third periods, the drama of a 0-0 tie was getting tough to handle.

"I feel like I’m holding my breath the whole time," Jones said.

Minutes later, only one section inside Prospera Place was making noise. The rest of the crowd filtered out quickly. In sudden-death overtime, a Silvertip shot took an unlikely bounce off the goalie’s stick and into the net. Game over.

Wilbanks cried.

Willard-Park sobbed, "Oh my God. He’s not going home. He’s not going home."

Castle, with a cup of coffee in hand, pumped his other fist in the air.

Scott Elder, 34, immediately thought of the fans in Everett.

"At least now if we lose, we’re at home and everyone there gets to see it," he said.

The Everett supporters were now more than 100 strong, with other fans and players’ relatives who made the trip on their own. The crowd rushed through the arena’s concrete corridors and stood outside the Silvertips locker room, cowbells clanging and chanting "Tips! Tips! Tips!"

As each player walked out, the ovation grew louder.

Wilbanks cheered and smiled.

Willard-Park waited for Blatchford, who finally emerged. The couple rushed off into a corner away from the mob.

Castle went outside and started the bus, excited about attending Game 6 on Monday in Everett.

Silvertips center Chad Bassen, smiling and talking with family and friends, said the Everett faithful made a difference.

"Having all these fans is awesome," he said. "When you make a good play, you know there’s people rooting for you, and that makes you want to do it even more."

The fans’ bus followed the team charter out of the arena parking lot in Kelowna at 10:30 p.m., more than 12 hours after leaving Everett. Too amped up to sleep, most of them stayed awake to watch "The Mighty Ducks" on video because, as Wilbanks said, "We want more hockey!"

The bus grew quieter as the exhaustion and aftereffects of elation set in. Back in Hope at 1:30 a.m., people got out to stretch their legs and get some snacks and drinks.

The bus rolled in to Everett Station at 4:55 a.m. The droopy-eyed fans still had enough energy for an occasional whoop and "Go Tips."

"I can’t believe it’s 5 in the morning," Willard-Park said. "I could not get comfortable in the back of the bus. It was a nightmare."

But, would she do it again?

"Oh yeah," she said. "They’re more than hockey players. They’re our friends."

Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.

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