Two Sunshine Coast hockey players were recently selected to represent their zone at the B.C. Hockey Association's Best Ever Program of Excellence.
Chad Ketting and Joe Antilla both started their hockey careers as five-year-olds at the Sunshine Coast Arena in Sechelt. The boys will be playing together once again for zone five.
The province is divided into eight zones and a hockey team is assembled from each zone to play in the B.C. Winter Games. Zone five is made up of West, North, South and Greater Vancouver, Sunshine Coast, Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton.
The 2006 B.C. Winter Games are slated for Feb. 23 to 26 in Trail.
The boys were teammates and rivals for many years, and still remain friends. They played together in winter hockey and against each other in spring hockey.
Chad lived for many years in Halfmoon Bay. Last year he moved to the Lower Mainland in order to pursue a higher calibre of hockey. He is currently playing for the North Shore Winter Club as their starting goalie.
Joe was born in Sechelt and lived most of his life in Pender Harbour. He played hockey for the last two years as a forward on the Notre Dame Hounds bantam AAA in Saskatchewan at the Athol Murray of Notre Dame School.
Both boys have played for the Vancouver Selects, Pacific Vipers and Mission Hockey Vancouver Bulldogs, sometimes at the same time and sometimes not. During the past few years they have played at the highest levels of hockey in North America and internationally.
Last year, Joe played in the junior under-14 hockey tournament in the Czech Republic and also played in several games in other European countries travelling with Team Canada.
Now, both players will be reunited to play for gold at the Winter Games.
