Basara Bonus Vipers' Recruit:

This is in todays Morning Star Newspaper:

Basara bonus Vipers' recruit

Published: June 12, 2010

Some say he plays much like Sahir Gill. And while Mark Ferner hasn’t seen Marcus Basara play, he knows the Vernon Vipers are getting a top-six forward in Marcus Basara of Coquitlam.

“We’ve heard different reports, but I had a long talk with him and his family, and he’s a very smart kid,” said Ferner. “We know he has good speed and is gifted offensively. He loves to scores goals.”

Listed by the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders after being bypassed in the Bantam Draft, the 5-foot-10, 162-pounder led the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League with 37 goal and 65 points in 43 games last season.

The Hounds successfully defender their national championship Telus Cup, in April, in Quebec.

Basara actually approached the Vipers so Ferner’s job to sell the Vipers’ program was made easier.

“I think one of the reasons we got him (over Prince Albert) is he spent three years in Saskatchewan and he had had enough. We didn’t know if we had a chance at signing him. He should be a two-year player for us.”

The Vipers lose the core of their two-time defending Royal Bank Cup roster and Ferner has a handful of other elite recruits to announce in the next two weeks. Vernon’s training camp opens Aug. 23 at Wesbild Centre.

Meanwhile, Rylan Ferster is the new head coach/GM of the Revelstoke Grizzlies.

Ferster earlier this week left the Salmon Arm SilverBacks of the B.C. Hockey League as head coach/GM. He replaces Vernon’s Troy Mick, who recently joined the Pursuit of Excellence academy in Kelowna.

“We are extremely excited as an ownership group to have Rylan join our hockey club,” said Mick, who helped the Kootenay International League champion Grizzlies with the hiring process. “This will help us continue our goals of developing hockey players to the next level and produce a team that all of Revelstoke can be proud of, and continue the winning tradition.

Said Ferster: “I`m extremely excited to be part of the Revelstoke Grizzlies This will be a huge task of course with the team coming off a championship season. One that I and the rest of the staff will embrace and work hard to duplicate.”

Mick said Ferster, who helped the Vernon Lakers win the 1990 Centennial Cup on home ice, “has seven years of junior A coaching experience and brings a ton of knowledge and leadership skills that we were looking for. He has coached at the junior A level his whole career and also has coached teams at the international level with Team Canada West.”