By TERRY PUGH
Hundreds of young athletes converged on Saskatoon, Martensville and Warman this week to compete in one of the biggest ball hockey tournaments in the country.
The Western Challenge Cup kicked off on Wednesday, July 9 with games in all three cities. The tournament includes dozens of teams in U11, U13, U15 and U17 divisions, all vying for gold medal glory. The event wraps up July 13.
“Ball hockey is growing rapidly in Saskatchewan,” said Justin Podhorodeski, Coordinator of the Saskatoon Ball Hockey League (SBHL) and a key organizer of this year’s Western Challenge Cup. “Basically, it’s a highly-organized form of street hockey or road hockey that every kid has played in their neighbourhood.”
Podhorodeski said the Western Challenge Cup aims to shine a spotlight on the sport.
“This tournament has been going for about 15 years or so, but mainly in Alberta and BC. This is the first time it’s being held in Saskatchewan. We just wanted to increase the participation from the local community, and we’re super excited to see the response we got. There are about 15 teams from Saskatchewan this year.”
Podhorodeski said many of the teams in the tournament play in the SBHL, but some are made up of ice hockey players who are keen to use their hockey skills against top-tier competition. With many local athletes taking part, the crowds are quite sizeable at each of the three venues: Martensville Recreation Centre, Warman Home Centre Communiplex, and Merlis Belsher Place.
It’s not uncommon to see elite ice hockey talent also score success on the concrete, he said.
“Canada just won a gold medal in Slovakia,” he noted, adding one of the key players on that team was Rylan Pearce of Martensville, who now plays for the Everett Silvertips in the Western Hockey League.
Podhorodeski said the rules of ball hockey are similar to ice hockey, but there is no body checking and the offside rule takes a little getting used to.
“The biggest difference is the ‘floating blue line’ in ball hockey,” said Podhorodeski. “In ball hockey once you get across the blue line, the whole half of the rink, from the red line in, becomes the offensive zone. It opens up the game, because you can’t move as fast if you’re running instead of skating.”
He said the SBHL operates three separate seasons during the year, in spring, fall and winter.
“The spring league is the longest,” he said. “It runs from April till late June. The fall season goes from October till December, and the winter season runs January till March. The teams play anywhere from 13 to 20 games per season.”
Podhorodeski said he’s hopeful the tournament will spur additional interest in the sport and the SBHL, as well as encourage athletes to take their skills to another level and aspire to play for Team Canada on the international stage.
Additional information on the Western Challenge Cup schedule, team rosters and game scores can be found through an online link at canadaballhockey.ca.