Billet families: A home away from home

Moving in with a billet family is something many hockey players do as they pursue their passion.

Saskatchewan’s Marshall moved out of his parents house in grade 10.

“I feel like some people would have had more difficulty moving away at such a young age, but I felt like it was an easy adjustment and I was ready to move out of the house at that age,” Marshall explained.

Now, he lives with Terri-Lea and Sean Yeaman, in his second year with the Brooks Bandits.

The Yeamans have been billet parents for 10 years. When they first started, billets provided an ‘older sibling’ role to their two kids.

“They were seen as kind of larger than life to the kids a little bit, right,” says billet parent, Sean Yeaman.

“They’ve been excellent role models,” he added.

“And then as my son got older, they would talk about hockey around the table. Like, ‘what do you do in this situation? What do you do here? What’s this play? What’s that play?’ All that type of stuff.”

Yeaman’s kids are pursuing hockey now too.

“My son is probably going to hopefully pursue the junior path. So he knows how to know how to be a billet, how to be respectful at home,” Yeaman said.

“All of our billets have been super respectful, super integrated into our family. They come watch our kids play hockey. If we had to take off at night, they’d watch the kids.”

While Yeaman’s kids have moved out, billets are still welcomed into the home by Bandit, the family dog.

“Bandit goes downstairs and hangs out, gets whatever food they leave out, he picks up the scraps,” Yeaman said. “He hangs out down there all the time with the kids and they love him.”

In their spare time, the billet family bonds over their shared love for hockey. In this specific case, the Edmonton Oilers.

“I feel like I’m super fortunate to have such good billets and they’ve welcomed me into their house and they’re basically a second family for me now,” Marshall said.

Yet one of the most exciting parts about being a billet family is supporting the team they love at games.

“It’s a pretty cool way to spend a winter, which could typically be pretty boring times,” Yeaman said.

“You always hear Sean every game on the horn,” Marshall said. “He brings a loud presence to the building.”

The Yeamans stay in touch with every billet they have hosted over the past decade, a chosen family bonded by their shared love for hockey.

by Lisa Parent

Billet families: A home away from home

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