Western Canada Pond Hockey Championships get green light amid green winter
Posted Dec 22, 2023 1:05 pm.
The seventh annual Tim Hortons Western Canada Pond Hockey Championships has been given the green light despite the warmer-than-normal weather.
The event was teetering on whether it would even happen as the warm conditions have been a cause for concern for Chestermere city officials and the fire department, who finally gave the go-ahead.
For the seventh annual event, event organizer Alex Halat says it “came down to the wire.”
“For the organizing committee it’s been emotional the last few weeks, putting in … countless hours — hundreds and hundreds of volunteer hours to get to this point, and to finally have the approval from the City of Chestermere for the tournament is awesome,” he told CityNews.
Forty-nine teams are turning up for the event, but Halat says that is down from 80 teams signing up in an average year. In addition, he says they are down to nine rinks from a normal 16.
“Unfortunately we had to cut a few teams, but the event is still a go, and we still have the ability to raise some money for some local non-profits,” he said.
The weather has been the main reason for the delay.
He says there are normally 10-13 inches of ice to build up for skating. This year it’s sitting at eight inches.
Weather typically ranges around zero degrees or below at this time, but it’s been hovering just above that in 2023, with some days even hitting 16 C in Calgary.
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Halet says they’ve gone “old-school” with an auger pump by drilling into the lake and building the rinks as they are. With no snow as well, and little boards compared to the two to three-foot boards, he says it will be a “fun time.”
“The atmosphere is still going to be the same as always. We’re expecting well over 10,000-12,000 people a day to this event,” he said.
He says you’ll find all the rinks in the southeast corner of Chestermere Lake. The Tim Hortons Igloo is back, which is a 50-foot igloo typically built on the lake. However, this year it’s in the parking lot for safety reasons.
The championship started when a couple of dads came together to build some rinks for the neighbourhood and grew to include hundreds of kids.
Halat says normally 1,000 players take part and 17,000 people attend, with the youngest being six years old, and the oldest in their 60s.
“That’s the beauty of pond hockey, it’s not real hockey. No one is out here trying to win a Stanley Cup or get scouted by anyone,” Halat said.
“They’re just out here for a good time and to enjoy the weather.”
Funds go to Chestermere Food Bank, the Women’s Crisis Society, and Synergy, a youth outreach group for the area.
Halat is also known for organizing Hockey Marathon for the Kids, which had the “World’s longest hockey game,” a 261-hour game that raised over $850,000 for charity in 2022 at the Chestermere Recreational Centre, earning the Guinness World Record in the process. The organization has raised nearly $4 million since 2012.
Watch: World’s Longest Hockey Game receives outpour of support
He says the two events see 1,800 volunteers throughout the year, including for the longest game, which is being planned again for 2024, with the goal of beating the old record by one hour on top of raising more funds for charity.
“We’ve got some pretty amazing volunteers,” he said. “Hats off to all of them. This wouldn’t be possible without them.”
Halat says the volunteers come from Facebook posts mostly and are just everyday people trying to help out.
“We’re so old school,” he said.
“First couple of years we just went off pen and paper, and now they’re doing all of the volunteer signups online, so it circulates through town quite a bit.”
There have been teams from the U.S., Germany, and other areas around the country.
This year, most of the teams are from Alberta, with around 40-50 per cent of the 500 kids from Calgary.
The games take place from Dec. 27-29 at Chestermere Lake. More information about the tournament can be found online.
