It’s an experience you will treasure for a lifetime. For many of these players, it is their first time away from home. You can provide them with a welcoming and comfortable environment to make sure they have a great experience. Secondly, the players will impact your family’s lives. If you have children, many times the players will serve as a great role model for your kids. Billeting is also a really good fit for people without children or whose children have grown up and moved out of the house. The billet experience is typically a great experience for both the billet families and the players.
A personal space including a bed, internet access, and a comfortable/supportive living environment. Nutritious food is also a must, as they are high-caliber athletes.
You will receive a check from the Wenatchee Wild for $350/month, a “buy one – get one free” season ticket voucher for the Wild home games, and free entrance to all Wolves U18 and Wilderness U16 games for everyone living in your home.
We have a team policy that players cannot stay home alone at their billet family’s home. When your family is traveling, just inform the coaching staff and they will place your player in a different billet home for the time that you are away.
Our players will be between the ages of 16-20. Many of the players will have their own car and the players that do not will have the help of their teammates for rides. You can always help your player with rides but it is not something that you would be obligated to provide or ever asked to do.
Yes. This is up to you, as many billet families like having more than one player in their home while many others like just having one.
The housing families and the players will each fill out a questionnaire regarding specifics of what they are looking for in this experience. The questionnaires, combined with the billet coordinator’s knowledge of each family and player, are used to pair players with families that we believe will be a good fit.
The Wenatchee Wild, U18 Wolves & U16 Wilderness have an extensive rule book for the players to follow with their housing families. The players will be expected to follow any additional house/family rules that you have. These players are moving away from home and are very serious about pursuing hockey at the higher levels. They understand that breaking team rules can significantly hinder their dreams of playing college/professional hockey someday.
The players are kept very busy. During a typical weekday, many will attend school full-time (Wenatchee or Eastmont High), then come to the rink for practice, then have study hall or team workout. The Wild play games almost every weekend during the season, primarily on weekends, though it may vary. The players arrive at the end of August and stay until the end of the hockey season sometime in March, depending on how deep the team advances in the playoffs. Some players will go home at the end of the season and some will stay through the school year. Some players will go home for a number of days over winter break.
The bottom line is that housing a hockey player should be a great experience for both your family and the player! We are looking for families to provide a comfortable living environment for our players as they transition away from their parents’ homes for the first time in their young lives. Our coaching staff will be in constant contact with you throughout the season to make sure everything is going well.
The strength of a successful junior hockey program is clearly the billet families. Players spend the majority of their time in these homes where they are welcomed in and integrated as a functional part of the family. The experience is rewarding and forges life-long bonds.
If interested in becoming a housing family, please fill out the ‘Housing Family Application’ form below and send to Wild Head Coach Chris Clark at the Wild office. If you have more questions about becoming a housing family, please feel free to contact Coach Clark or Hockey Director Troy Mick at the Wild office: 509-888-7825 or email them at cclark@wenatcheewildhockey.com or tmick@wenatcheewildhockey.com.
