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Westlock to host provincial championship

Westlock will play host to the Hockey Alberta Bantam ‘B’ Provincial tournament this March.
Bantam Warriors captain Ethan Brost and his teammates will face the best in the province when the club hosts the Hockey Alberta Bantam
Bantam Warriors captain Ethan Brost and his teammates will face the best in the province when the club hosts the Hockey Alberta Bantam

Westlock will play host to the Hockey Alberta Bantam ‘B’ Provincial tournament this March.

The tournament, scheduled for March 13-16, is the first provincial event in Westlock since the community hosted the Atom ‘B’ tournament in 2011, said Westlock and District Minor Hockey president Denise Boulerice.

“It’s usually a fun weekend,” she said.

Boulerice said Westlock secured the hosting duties for the tournament earlier this year, when it became known a host community hadn’t yet been confirmed.

It will be a challenge to run the tournament, she said, as all the other Westlock teams are scheduled to be on the road that weekend. The association will need to find community members to volunteer to help ensure the weekend runs smoothly.

Looking at the season as a whole, Boulerice said she’s happy the association has been able to ice 12 teams, with at least two at every level except midget.

However, she said she’s hopeful there will be enough midget-aged kids next year to ice two teams.

Each of the association’s 12 teams is doing well this year, with some teams at the top end of their tiers and others more middle of the pack.

“It’s all around just competitive,” Boulerice said. “What we like about our league is how big it is and how we fit somewhere all the time.”

In total, there are about 166 players registered with the association’s 12 teams, which is an increase of about 14 players from last year, she said.

Although having more players is a good thing, it has also created a few problems.

“With our increased teams and with the bad weather we’ve had some trying weekends having to reschedule games,” Boulerice said.

With many games needing to be made up, she said she expects there will be a lot of hockey played on weeknights the rest of the season.

On the Fun Hockey side of things, enrolment has also increased.

“We’re way up,” said Westlock Fun Hockey president Jeff Blades.

There are approximately 60 kids enrolled with the association, forming two teams for ages six to 10, and two teams for those players 11-15.

And while the association has seen registration continue to increase, Blades said there are some skaters who have taken what they learned in Fun Hockey and moved on to bigger things.

“A couple of them jumped right to hitting hockey right at the midget level,” he said.

One of the biggest changes the association has seen this year is a gradual expansion in the number of communities with teams to play against.

New to the fold are Mayerthorpe and Morinville, joining the already robust circuit that includes teams in Barrhead, Fawcett, Fort Assiniboine, Linaria and Rich Valley.

There is even talk of having Riviere Qui Barre join the ranks, Blades said.

He said there is no active pursuit of more teams. Instead, it’s merely a matter of finding more opponents, even if it’s only for a one-off event.

“We’re just throwing it out there to them if they want to come and play two games with our little league just to try it out,” he said.

On the whole, there is no doubting it’s been a good year for Fun Hockey in Westlock, according to association secretary-treasurer Monique Cameron.

“The kids are having fun,” she said. “They’re learning a lot. Their skating ability from the beginning of the year is greatly improved, especially the ones who have not been on the ice at all ever.”

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