INNISFAIL – Coaches, players, team managers and families gathered to celebrate another successful year in minor hockey.
The Innisfail Minor Hockey Association (IMHA) held its annual awards banquet at the Royal Canadian Legion on March 27.
“It was a very good night,” said Stephen Bates, president of the IMHA. “It’s the one night out of the year that we all get a chance to gather together and hear about everybody’s season and the success they had throughout the year.”
Awards were given out to teams at every level, including novice, atom, peewee, bantam, midget and female teams, as well as several individual awards and awards of special recognition for coaches and managers.
“It allows some of those individuals to be recognized for their contributions to their teams and to hear them get some strong praise from their coaches,” said Bates.
The association’s referee in chief, Bruce Rafuse, was master of ceremonies. This year, the association introduced a new award to show its appreciation for the work referees do on the ice.
“This year we created a new award and that was to recognize our officials,” said Bates. “It’s the first year that we’ve ever handed out the Bernie Haley (Referee of the Year) award.”
Bates noted the important role of referees.
“Without our referees you can’t play hockey,” he said, adding both kids and adults perform refereeing duties in Innisfail. “(There’s) a lot of kids that (referee) a lot of our games in town and there’s a lot of adults that referee our games as well.
“Any time you’re a minor hockey referee, it’s a very thankless job,” said Bates, adding they want to encourage referees to continue their good work.
“We felt it was something we could do to recognize our referees.”
This year several teams brought home league championship banners in addition to the three teams that went to provincials, noted Bates.
“Our provincial (championships) is pretty big, but at the same time when you’ve competed against eight or nine teams the entire season and you beat them all at the end, that’s pretty special as well,” Bates concluded.
