The Midget A BC Hockey Tier 3 Championship is coming to the Coast next month, bringing more than 1,000 visitors for five days, according to Sunshine Coast Minor Hockey Asso-ciation committee chair Brenda Rowe.
“They’re going to be here for five days, so the hotels are winning and people are going to have to eat,” Rowe said. “There’s no way it can’t add to our local economy.”
Ten teams – about 200 players – arrive on March 12 for an opening night banquet at Camp Elphinstone with guest speaker Emmanuel Arceneaux, wide receiver for the BC Lions football team.
“He’s a football player from Louisiana, but we’re looking for more of the message,” Rowe said. “His message will resonate with these kids.”
Games start on March 13 and run all day from Sunday to Tuesday. Wednesday will tie up the last two games in the round robin followed by two semi-finals and medal games on Thursday. All games are to be held in the Gibsons and Area Community Centre.
Meanwhile, Rowe has been getting ready to host the expected influx of visitors.
“We’ve been canvassing the Coast and we’ve had pretty spectacular responses from a lot of the larger businesses,” Rowe said. “We’ve raised over $20,000 in sponsorships from local businesses.”
Rowe said they are planning many events to entertain visitors, including a food truck and tent festival outside the rink and a hockey crawl challenge for the teams.
“Most teams will only play one game a day, so there’s going to be lots of down time,” Rowe said. “So we have what I’ve called the Sunshine Coast Hockey Crawl, sort of modelled on the Art Crawl.”
Teams will be given maps to local businesses that have sponsored the Championship and businesses will be given retro hockey jerseys and NHL cards to display in their store. Teams can choose to go around to the businesses and complete tasks in each store.
The winning team will receive a prize package valued at around $2,000.
For more information visit www.scminorhockey.com or contact Rowe at [email protected]
