Big day for house league players
37th annual Peterborough Girls Hockey Association Tournament continues until Sunday
It’s not often a house league hockey player gets to take a day off school to play in a hockey tournament.
That was one of the highlights for Annalise Musclow of the Peterborough Kielec Ice Kats atom house league team on Day 1 of the 37th Peterborough Girls Hockey Association Tournament.
There were 91 teams in 15 divisions kicking off play Friday at Peterborough’s four arenas and another in Manvers Township.
The girls in rep divisions are accustomed to playing in tournaments, and sneaking the odd day off school, but it’s a novelty for house leaguers.
“It’s really fun and a good experience because we don’t get to play in tournaments very often,” Musclow said. “It’s fun to play teams you don’t usually get to play in regular league games. I like missing school. It’s fun. It’s more pressure but it’s more fun because you can win a medal if you do well.”
The team has a tradition of awarding the Golden Jersey to a player after each game who displays outstanding effort. Myla Bolton was the recipient after the Ice Kats’ second game.
“I love it,” Bolton, 7, said, of playing in a tournament. “You get to do a lot of skating. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. It just matters if you have fun. Hockey is my most favourite sport.”
The girls got off to a good start with a 2-1 win over the Ennismore Eagles with Clare Lodgins and Olivia Desautel scoring goals. They ran into a really strong Whitby Wolves team in a 7-0 loss but the girls’ spirits remained high after the game.
“For a lot of these girls this will be their first tournament,” coach Darryl Kielec said. “It’s so much more exciting for them. First of all, they get to miss school and that’s exciting in itself. It’s a whole different situation for them where they’re playing different teams they haven’t played before. They ’re playing multiple games. These girls were so excited about it. It’s so much fun for them.”
Kielec said his biggest message to the girls is to play hard and have fun.
“The team we just played was a great team and it was a pretty challenging game but at the end the girls didn’t give up. That’s what we tell them at the end of it. Play as hard as you can and play your best and they really all did that,” he said.
The PGHA decided about a decade ago to add house league teams to their tournament.
“They’re part of the Ice Kats organization and I think it’s important everybody gets to play in their home tournament,” said PGHA president Carole Wagner.
“A lot of organizations do separate house league tournaments if they do them at all. I think it’s important for the house league girls to get the chance to take part in the vendors and the clothing and all that stuff they don’t necessarily get because they only play once a week. Perhaps, they’ll want to play rep in future years.”
Action continues Saturday with finals in all divisions on Sunday. A full schedule and live results can be found at www.sportacularevent.com.