Ste. Agathe hosted this year’s U11A1 hockey provincials from March 3–5. Nine teams from across Manitoba participated in the competition, including the Niverville Clippers, a team made up of kids from both Niverville and Ste. Agathe.
The events co-chairs, Terryl Luhowy and Melissa Nishizeki, say they were fortunate to have a great group of parents to help plan the event and volunteer throughout the weekend.
“We started planning the provincials back in mid-January,” says Luhowy. “We all put in a significant amount of time communicating with the teams, preparing for the opening ceremonies, obtaining sponsorships and silent auction prizes, arranging the hotels for the visiting teams, etc. It’s amazing how much time and effort goes into preparing for provincials and still everything comes down to the final days leading up to it.”
The co-chairs and their committee spent the last day before the event preparing the arena, even battling through a power outage that evening to ensure they had everything in place.
Fortunately, many helpers stepped up throughout the tournament, including parents, arena staff, community members, and visitors from other teams since the arena had a blown breaker during opening ceremonies and a burst water pipe on Sunday during the semifinals.
On Friday, Niverville faced the Brandon Black Panthers. It was a tight game but the Clippers held on to pull out a 2–1 victory.
That evening, the opening ceremonies preceded the game between the Clippers and the Thompson King Miners.
Luhowy says that the plan for the ceremony was to create a memorable experience for the athletes and make them feel like they were all part of the show.
“We had team flag-bearers leading the teams onto the ice, giant sparklers for them to walk through as they walked onto the ice, dry ice fog on the ice surface and our special announcer for the weekend, Tom Hallick, announcing each player as they walked on,” says Luhowy.
He says that the organizers would like to thank Tom Hallick, Quantum Dance Academy, Breanne Routly from Clippers Ice Sports, Nolan Mcguire and Jeanne Baudry from Cargill, and Mel Bergen, who sang the national anthem.
Everyone working together, he says, helped make the event one that kids will remember for a long time.
After the opening ceremonies, the Clippers had their chance to shine. They came out flying and beat Thompson 16–0 to take first place overall in the round robin standings and a bye into Sunday’s semifinals.
On Sunday, the Clippers played what Luhowy says was one of the best defensive games of the year. Once again they took the win, this time defeating the Stonewall Blues 4–1 and securing their spot in the finals against the Virden Oil Capitals.
The Morden Hawks battled Stonewall for the bronze medal in a thrilling game that went into overtime. In the end, Morden captured a 4–3 win.
At 4:45 on Sunday, the stands were packed with fans for the final game. Unfortunately, the Clippers were unable to secure the win against Virden and lost 6–2, leaving provincials with a silver medal.
“Overall the Clippers had a great provincials and should be proud of their silver medal win,” says Luhowy. “The kids have little time to dwell on the sting of losing in the finals, as we are back at it this week and play Lac du Bonnet in a best of three in the A-side finals of the Eastman playoffs.”
