With an involvement in the local minor hockey scene that spans well over three decades, Jim McLoughlin has literally touched the lives of hundreds of young hockey players.

The vast majority of them don't even know it.

McLoughlin, now 64, transferred to the area, from Toronto, in 1973. With four boys playing hockey, two in rep and two in houseleague, his approach to the sport was shaped, at least somewhat, by the similarities of their experiences, regardless of where they played.

"Whether the boys played rep or the boys played houseleague, it was all hockey to me," McLoughlin said recently. "It was a recreational sport, no more, no less. Their skill level simply dictated where they would play."

That mindset was at the forefront of meetings in the early 1980s as McLoughlin and three friends launched the first Valley East Renegades Tournament, a modest endeavour, attracting some 29 teams in the initial edition.

But what has set McLoughlin apart, both during his long-time involvement with the Renegades Tournament and Valley East Minor Hockey, as well as his more recent administrative duties with the novice and atom houseleague hockey ranks, is an unyielding belief in the value of fair play, the need to find appropriate competition, regardless of the level of skill of the players involved.

It was a lesson that hit home early. "We had 22 novice teams one year in the tournament and only one championship game," McLoughlin noted. "I looked at the end of the tournament and said that's not right. We had to have more championship games and balance off the caliber of play."

For too long, the notion of gathering a grouping of teams where as many of half had no realistic chance of advancing to the finals was simply accepted as the way things had to be. That acceptance never came to McLoughlin.

"I started changing formats," said the man who has tackled the scheduling process both for the Renegades Tournament and countless other events over the years. "We do have complicated formats. It's a puzzle that all works out in the end."

"The easiest thing to do would be to not care who played who, or if you have football scores, to get your tournament done and take the money and run", McLoughlin stated. "To me, it's all about giving the kids a fair game when you get to the knockout games."

One need look no further than the 2013 competition that has just wrapped up for proof in the pudding. Welcoming a field of 109 teams, the Renegades Tournament hosted 28 championship games, meaning that more than half of all teams entered would be playing for some hardware come Sunday.

While their unique sense of scheduling has remained a trademark of the event - the Renegades Tournament is one of the few that will not hesitate to move a team into a different division, mid-weekend, in order to generate better matchups - it is hardly the only signature stamp of the Valley East late March tradition.

The involvement of recently retired NHLer Andrew Brunette, whose support of the tournament over the years has provided for thousands of dollars of donated equipment to young hockey players from across the north, remains very much appreciated by tournament organizers.

And the lack of organizational structure has almost become a Renegades motto. "Anybody will tell you, we are the most unorganized group, at the meetings, that you would ever want to meet," McLoughlin said.

"But everybody comes through at the tournament." His years of involvement with houseleague hockey in Valley East made McLoughlin an easy choice to convene younger divisions when his coaching days ended near the turn of the millenium.

By this time, McLoughlin had a clear idea of what minor hockey should be all about. "There was a time when it wasn't fun going to the arenas," he said. "There was a point where the fun was taken out of the game because it got too serious in the stands."

"I wanted to make sure the kids had fun." Over the past six to seven years, McLoughlin has logged hundreds of hours taking in games at the novice and atom houseleague levels, constantly trying to find ways to make sure the experience of every single player is an enjoyable one.

Teams are shuffled into different divisions, schedules are adjusted and re-arranged, all in the hopes of finding the proper balance, the parity within a grouping that remains the goal of even a number of leagues in a variety of professional sports.

McLoughlin is not above borrowing ideas that he believes promote the notion of fair play. He credits long-time friend and Valley East co-hort Bob Bellrose with the introduction of having two trophies on hand for championship games in younger age brackets, allowing each team to enjoy their ceremonial Stanley Cup moment regardless of the outcome that is etched on the final scoreboard.

The irony to this story, perhaps, lies in the fact that less than two weeks before the umpteenth edition of the Renegades Tournament was played out at a host of local arenas, Sudbury native and Hockey News senior editor Ken Campbell was in town for a book signing, the combined stories of all that has gone wrong in taking the purity out of our national game.

"Selling the Dream: How Hockey Parents and Their Kids Are Paying the Price for Our National Obsession" outlines, in great detail, the extravagent lengths and costs that individuals will pursue in the hopes of reaching the pinnacle of this sport.

McLoughlin, one hopes, and others of his ilk, may form a chapter of the sequel. The book devoted to those who want to ensure, well above the importance of winning, that fun becomes the foundation for all kids who lace up the skates in Canada.