SUNDRE – The Sundre Rec Hockey Association recently welcomed eight visiting teams for their annual home tournament.
Dubbed the Sundre Winter Classic this year, the event that also serves as a fundraiser was held Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at the Sundre Area, where the hosting Mustangs brought the total of teams up to 13.
Needless to say, that was a lot of hockey to pack into barely more than two days.
“It was a very busy weekend,” said Heather Zloty, the association’s vice-president.
“It was awesome,” she said.
There were two U8 teams from Sundre as well as one U11, one U15 and one U18, with the visitors hailing from Cochrane, Cremona, Sylvan Lake, Kneehill as well as Didsbury.
“We had a new tournament coordinator this year – Yukino Peck did a really great job getting it all sorted out and organized,” said Zloty.
“Between me and her, it was our first year doing it all,” she said, adding they were able to get everything figured out.
“It went off without a hitch.”
By the end of the weekend, the association had raised shy of $4,500, up a bit from previous years, she said.
“We did 50-50s once a day instead of every game, and so they ended up being pretty big pots,” she said, adding the average take-home prize was approximately $250.
Asked how the rec hockey league’s season has been coming along, she said, “I can’t believe it’s already almost over!”
The season ends on March 20 with each team holding their own individual year-end celebrations to wind things up.
Although there aren’t any playoffs in rec hockey, the Mustangs still have one main event left with plans to play in a tournament hosted by Sylvan Lake in March, she said.
“They’ll have one more big tournament before they end their season.”
Zloty expressed appreciation for all the sponsors who contributed toward making the Sundre Winter Classic a hit.
“We had a lot of donations for our raffles and from the community and that was a really big part of the success.”
She was also grateful for all of the fans who came out to cheer on the players as well as the volunteers who helped out.
