Twenty minutes down Highway 39 from Weyburn, in the town of Yellow Grass there's a sign proclaiming it the hot spot of Canada. A temperature of 114 degrees was recorded there, in 1937 BC (Before Celsius).

As it turns out, Yellow Grass was once again a hot spot, this past winter, for hockey.

The community joined the Big Six Hockey League, rallying behind its first senior hockey team in 17 years. It was a remarkable first year for the Wheat Kings, who made it all the way to the finals. However, the success wasn't just on the ice.

"We got the idea from Ray Erickson, from Weyburn." said Yellow Grass Rink Board member, Jeff Watson. "They had a group of players that were playing in Arcola, and they wanted to stick together. They had lost their franchise for the year. They took a leave of absence, the players wanted to stick it out, so they phoned out to see if we had a group of locals here, and if the town could support a franchise."

Watson picked up the phone and called Allan Whitrow. "Your phone call to me was probably the 12th of October, the earliest." Whitrow recalled, in conversation with Watson.

"Yeah" responded Watson. "We went to a meeting the following Tuesday night, a league meeting, to see if we could even get into the league."

Watson travelled to the meeting with Ray Erickson and Riley Richards. "(We) explained we had the core group from a team they had recently seen, and we were going to bring some more on. So, the league decided to vote us in, and went to 8 teams, split into east and west." he recollected.

And just like that, in the space of two weeks, Yellow Grass had a hockey team, the Wheat Kings.

"Jeff made the majority of the phone calls around Yellow Grass and got us all thinking there was a possibility there was going to be a team, not thinking there was going to be a team. " said Whitrow.

"When he calls me back from the league meeting and says we're in, I was surprised. " he added. "We had no intention of getting into a senior hockey league from zero to full bore in two weeks."

In the same phone call, said Whitrow, Watson was in the market for a team president, and Whitrow agreed to take on the job.

There was a lot of work to be done, and little time in which to do it. "The rink board here got together immediately, and it was having to make some improvements to the rink." recalled Whitrow.

Getting the rink league-ready was a high priority. They had to change the plexiglass, make changes to the penalty box, while at the same time making ice, along with other rink repairs that needed to be done. It

was a project, and a challenge, that captured the imagination of the people of Yellow Grass.

"People were coming out of everywhere to help." exclaimed Whitrow. "The idea of having a senior hockey team back in Yellow Grass somehow got everybody excited, even before they hit the ice." 

"I mean, there were guys that I hadn't had come to me to work in the rink for a long time that were showing up for work on the rink." Whitrow added.

But, once the rink was ready, that wasn't the end of it. They needed volunteers to help run things for the home games. A need that was easily met.

"The game day crew is probably 30 people." said Whitrow. "I mean, all parts of the rink, there's volunteers doing something."

Whitrow added that a key to their continued success is to expand their volunteer group to 40 people, and that people are familiar with their various responsibilities. And, they need to keep it going. "Sustaining the volunteer crowd is the next step to make sure that after next year, people aren't thinking, that's been a fun two years, but I'm burned out."

Coming to watch the Wheat Kings became more than just a hockey game. It was a social event. More than 400 people showed up for the home games, and local organizers knew how to cater to the crowd, with more than your standard rink burger.

"They just decided that to try to draw more people in, maybe give them something more than just come to a hockey game, you know, have some good food ahead of time." said Dale Dixon, in charge of food preparation."There was about five or six of us that kind of looked after it, and we would, you know, cook different meals before every game." added Dixon. 

"We had some really good stuff. So much community involvement, about 90 per cent of the food was donated. They were lining up to donate food. Like a steak and shrimp night where everything was donated. It was pure profit for the rink."

To Allan Whitrow, getting people to the games was more than a question of dollars and cents. "The stuff that happened this year was not geared toward raising money, it was geared towards putting an event together that would bring people into the rink." he said.

"And it's a unique building to watch a hockey game in, so the atmosphere is kind of cool. and you've got lots of people that haven't been around senior hockey in Yellow Grass for quite a while, so they come back to watch it." added Whitrow.

The fan attraction didn't end at the Yellow Grass rink. Buses were chartered, hauling Wheat Kings fans to games all around the southeast.

"It wasn't hard to line that up. " said Jeff Watson. "We were getting enough support out of Weyburn, people were travelling already. We were making sure our players were transported in a bus for a safe ride home, so we kind of took that approach with our fans, too."

Watson said demand for the buses greatly increased for the final series with Wawota. "We actually ended up hauling 90 passengers to the first game in Wawota, plus there were 30 or 40 who drove themselves. " he added.

"By the time, the second game in Wawota, we had two full buses going with fans plus an amount of them travelling, too and we fed them." he said with a chuckle.

The high level of community support wasn't lost on the players. "I think it far exceeded what anybody expected it would be. It was pretty amazing." said Justin Richter.

Team-mate, Ryder Watson agreed. "It was unbelievable. I never thought we would get anywhere near that kind of support."

Brett Wawro is the chairperson of the Yellow Grass Rink Board. He was also impressed with the community support. "I was talking to some of the guys during playoffs." said Wawro. "And, like the first team, probably I ever played for, where I wasn't just playing for the guys next to you in the room, you're actually playing for the whole town" he added.

"It meant a lot more than most other years."

So, how did the Yellow Grass Wheat Kings do on the ice? This team that was put together in two short weeks finished in second place in the east division of the Big Six Hockey League. They made it to the championship series against Wawota, but lost in four straight games.

While preferring a different outcome, the town of 440 feels a great sense of accomplishment, and looks forward to seasons ahead.