INNISFAIL – The Innisfail Bantam B Flyers held their annual tournament last weekend at the Arena with six teams fighting for the coveted banner.
“Things are going really well. We’re getting lots of positive feedback,” said Kathy Dilone, tournament coordinator. “There are six teams this year in the tournament, including Innisfail, and five are from out of town.”
Hockey players 13 and 14 years of age, on teams from Hinton, Lacombe, Airdrie, Strathmore, Lethbridge and Innisfail, took part in the two-day tournament on Jan. 12 and 13.
“Each team plays three games and then there’s a championship game for the banner,” she said, noting the Bantam B Flyers are part of the Central Alberta Hockey League (CAHL).
“We did have a lot of teams that wanted to come, so we did have a wait--list of five teams if anybody cancelled on us at the last minute,” said Dilone. “Tournaments are in high demand.”
A raffle table during the tournament helped raise money towards extra ice time and extra training for the team during the season, she noted.
“It’s competitive. Anybody should be able to win the tournament,” said Dilone, noting participating teams are in tier five. “All the teams are pretty equal.”
Steve Wik, head coach of the local Flyers, said it’s been a slow start to the season for his team.
“The season has been a little rough. We’re starting to come along now,” said Wik, adding the annual tournament gives players a chance to see how they match up against other teams in the league.
“Most of the teams here are on our level. Some of them are in our league,” he said. “We have a lot of different skill levels, a lot of different characters on our team and everybody’s starting to come together now as a team. We just need to finish a full 60-minute game,” he added.
Wik noted the energy and hard work his Bantam B Flyers are bringing to the ice this season.
“There’s a physical game and kids have learned most of the skills by this age,” said Wik. “As a coach, there’s things I can work on but they’ve learned most of what they’re going to learn (in hockey). Now it’s just heart, determination and a little bit of fine-tuning,” Wik concluded.
