Soo Pee Wee tournament champs
It produced a warm feeling inside a cold rink, watching two teams of spirited 10-year-old players facing off in a championship game.
Soo Pee Wee Arena was the site for the recent Ken Closs Christmas tournament featuring youth hockey teams playing for championships in 11 divisions.
By invitation, I took in the Atom Major title tilt between Grand Gardens Ice Hawks and Ergo Eagles and it was refreshing, to say the least, to be part of a happy-face crowd watching the youngsters play hard through three periods of non-stop action.
When it was all over, Grand Gardens upended Ergo 4-1 to lay claim to the Atom Major gold medal.
Members of the gold-medal crew include the staff of head coach Scott Smith, assistant coaches Mike Weise and Andy Buchan, trainer Kevin Caruso and manager Dawn Trudeau.
Gold-medal winning players from Grand Gardens include Christian Bridge-Huizing, Conrad Jennings, Elia Battelli, Ewan Buchan, Gavin Smith, Jake Shepley-Dickinson, Jude Holmes, Julian Ruscio, Michael Weise, Nevin Wing, Nicholas Caruso, Olivia Trudeau, Taten Hammerberg, Tristan Caputo, Landon Jones and Tristen Tranberg.
Other division winners were:
TYKE: Service Grill
NOVICE MINOR: McDonald’s
NOVICE MINOR A: Centre Ice Bar & Grill
NOVICE MAJOR: Elks Lodge
NOVICE MAJOR A: Lions Club
ATOM MINOR: Royal Purple
ATOM MINOR A: Sims
ATOM MAJOR A: Cofra
PEE WEE MAJOR: Aurora’s
PEE WEE MAJOR A: McDougall Energy
PHOTO: Members of the Atom Major champion Grand Gardens Ice Hawks.
Thank you so much for coming to the game Randy! All of these kids play their hearts out and the recognition is much appreciated not only by the players and coaches, but parents as well.
You are welcome, Kevin. Really enjoyed the two games that we saw, the Atom Major championship game I referred to and a semi-final match in Novice Major A.
Thank you Randy for a story about Peewee Hockey League hockey. Lots of great stories come from these kids that seemed to be missed. The Soo PeeWee Extravaganza tournament is February 18 – 21 at all local arenas. Would love to more stories about the 1000 + that participate.
You are welcome, Chad. Stories missed are ones that we don’t hear about or are put onto.
Now that you put me onto the February 18-21 tournament, perhaps we can get together and arrange publicity. Let me know.
Regards,
Randy
Luv the coverage of the young kids. Great to read this Randy. Really Good nice Article/photo about the young kid’s Randy.
Way to go Randy. It is great to see coverage of budding stars in the Peewee League. I am sure the kids will all get a huge thrill to see their names and faces in the news.
Keep up the great coverage Randy.
Randy: Nice of you to reconize the young hockey players. Good work Sir!
There is one kid in this picture you didn’t mention, atom minor pick up Landon Jones. In that tournament for th e grand gardens team he scored 3 goals and got 3 assists in 3 games !!
Just thought it was worth mentioning.
Thank you !
Thanks Trudy. The names mentioned in the article were obtained via the Soo Pee Wee Hockey League website. I will add Landon’s name under the article right away.
Regards,
Randy