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Red Deer may only have a population of just over 70,000, but the city’s Enmax Centrium electrifies when the Western Hockey League’s Rebels play at home.

The standing-room-only crowds that regularly pack the 5,735 seat Centrium know they are supporting a revered junior franchise that has won the coveted Memorial Cup in 2001.

Although the franchise is now stable, it was not always like this. In 1992, when the Rebels entered the Western Hockey League (WHL), they finished eight games under .500. The pattern of futility continued until 1999, and during that span, the Rebels only made it past the second round of the playoffs once, when they lost in the 1996-97 WHL semi-finals.

In 1999, Brent Sutter—a member of Viking’s famous Sutter family that sent six brothers to the NHL—bought the Rebels and also took over as coach and general manager of the club. Sutter infused a sense of pride and preached a tough work ethic. He made the Rebels feel like a family, and the team responded. In 2000-01, the team finished with 54 wins, 12 losses and 3 ties, before going on to the Memorial Cup. The Rebels made it to the final in Regina, facing off against the Quebec champion Val d’Or Foreurs. The game was close. After 60 minutes, the two teams faced overtime, with the score tied at five. At 13:16 of overtime, Edmonton Oilers’ draft pick Doug Lynch scored the winner, giving Red Deer the biggest prize in junior hockey.

"Winning the Memorial Cup happened in my second year here, so it was quick for me," said Bryce Thoma, a Rebels defenceman from 1999-2003 who went on to captain the team in his senior year. "But I realize how special it is. Many guys never make the playoffs in the four years they are in this league."

Since the Cup win, the Rebels have remained one of the top-ranked junior programs in the country. In both 2002 and 2003, the team lost in the WHL final.

Sutter makes no apologies for his philosophy.

"When I came here, the number-one thing was to change the mindset of the organization," he said. "Just being competitive wasn’t good enough; we had to want to be the best. So we put this change in progress and people adjusted to it. We got a lot of young players and then moulded them to the system. It is demanding but the thing here, all success comes from the team being so family-oriented. We are a family."

Wins aside, the Rebels are also becoming a factory for NHL draft picks. In 2003, the Calgary Flames selected defender Dion Phaneuf in the top 10 of the National Hockey League’s draft. Defender Jeff Woywitka, property of the Philadelphia Flyers, and forward Boyd Gordon, a selection of the Washington Capitals, were lynchpins for Team Canada at the 2003 World Junior Championships. Goalie Cam Ward was a first-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2002 draft. Jim Vandermeer and Justin Mapletoft, both members of the Memorial Cup-winning team, have already played in the NHL.