The board of directors of the newest MJHL team which will be based in Niverville has announced the team will be known as the Niverville Nighthawks.

Nighthawks head coach and general manager Kelvin Cech is thrilled to have a name for his team. "We're incredibly excited. It's a powerful name. It's unique across the country and the province, obviously. It's exciting to have an identity and I can't wait to sign our first Nighthawk."

Cech does admit to being cautious about letting the secret slip. "Even in internal emails going back and forth, determining our domains for our website and the release that comes out (Friday) morning, I don't even write it. I'm paranoid and nervous about who might be reading it." 

There was a lot of input from the community and fans that went into choosing this name and in the early stages, it was the main group who brought the team to Niverville who had much of the say. As time went on, the community was brought in to have a voice. "It was a really cool way to do it, to get the community involved. It's a small town and to get people on board, it's exciting."

When it comes to bringing new players in, Cech says having a name and soon, a logo, helps sell the franchise to players. "We were on a Zoom call with a kid recently. We went through, we did our presentation and it was great. I said at the end to watch our social media for our name announcement and he perked right up. He was excited. It's an exciting thing for the players. As the GM, it's my job to bring in players who will contribute to our culture. To have a name now and colours on the way, the kids want to feel that pride. They want to be with a program that is powerful, strong and progressive. Having a good name, cool jerseys, looking good and being unique is big for them. It's great to be able to attach a name to the program."

More announcements are set to come as the team logo and jersey colours will be designed now that the team name has been chosen. Cech, a self described "jersey guy", wouldn't let slip if there's already an idea or two in place. "That's classified information but I will say there is a lot of stuff going around. It comes back to what is our purpose, what's our vision and values. I will say it won't be random. It will be thought out, unique and powerful just like our name because that's who we are."