Page 5 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 15

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There will be a lot of memories
like that created this year at the
2014 version of the Cornwall
tournament, which is being
held at the Benson Centre from
January 30th until February 2rd.
This is the 52st year of the
tournament and their third at the
Benson Center.
Fifty-six teams have registered:
24 in the bantam division, 18
minor midget and 14 major
midget teams. Having 14 teams
in the major midget division is
particularly nice since this season
many associations seemed to
have difficulty attracting enough
interest to ice teams at that
level.
This year, in addition to
the Cornwall teams, teams
representing the Montreal area
(Lakeshore, West Island and
Happy New Year and may only the best come to you in 2014.
5
$ 2 SKA TE
SHARPENING
Dollard des Ormeaux), New this magnitude is a massive some use it as a last minute way
York State, (Plattsburgh and undertaking, and Debbie to help build team chemistry.
Louisville), Ottawa (Ottawa Caskenette, tournament chair, Anyone who plays sports does
Sting, Ottawa West, Gloucester- and assorted other volunteers so, to some degree, hoping that
Orleans, Cumberland), Ottawa have been working hard, some they will taste victory. Some
Valley (Deep River, Pembroke, since the summer months to make tournaments you attend seem,
Arnprior, Valley Storm, Renfrew, sure it is a success. Teams start intentionally or not, as if they
Muskrat, Petawawa), and eastern shopping early for tournaments were created for two or three
Ontario (RWC, Metcalfe- to go to and Cornwall is lucky
Russell, Leitrim, Kemptville, enough to draw lot of interest teams, with all the others simply
buying a chance to play against
Athens, Perth, Brockville, due to its size, quality of the “the best.” That is definitely not
Alexandria, Char-Lan, South competition and the variety of the way things are organized at
Stormont, South Grenville, the teams involved. Having a the Winterfest tournament, and
South Dundas, North Dundas) facility like the Benson Center as mentioned above, a little bit of
will be participating. is huge draw as well. luck, combined with a complete
Each team has a three-game Another point of interest is that team effort at just the right time
guarantee in the round-robin all the talent isn’t on the ice can go a long way.
portion of the tournament with either. It isn’t unusual to see
What ever your motivation,
winning teams moving on to former pro players playing the the Cornwall Minor Hockey
the semi-finals and finals. The role of coach or parent.
Association Winterfest Bantam/
final championship game in all Timing is also important. With Midget Rep “B” Tournament is
divisions takes place on Sunday, the regular season winding down, a great way to fi nish off January
Feb. 2. some teams use this tournament and jump into February. Besides,
Organizing a tournament of to prepare for the playoffs and the kids really enjoy playing in
front of a big crowd!
With the World Juniors over and no medals to show for a fantastic effort (I think the boys
By Richard Waldroff
played excellent), the next event up is the Olympics. What a way to begin 2014.
During the WJC games there was this public service announcement that the Canadian Hockey League provides the
majority of players for the Hockey Canada Team. I believe it is somewhat misleading. Truth is, many of the players
on the European teams play on CHL teams as well and the results have shown in the last number of events.
I recall my presence sometime back at meetings where decisions were made insisting that we aid with the
development and growth of the game across the planet. Canada, in its usual kind and polite way said “We can’t just
keep pounding the competition, lets help them improve, become better.” Well folks we did as Canadians always do,
we give them our best and with no thanks they took the gold as well.
I only have one question regarding the makeup of Team Canada: What was a 16 year-old doing with a group of 19
year-old players when he could have better represented Canada with his talents in Sydney Nova Scotia at the World
Under 17 Tournament?
Since the last Olympics there has been talk of removing Womens hockey as an event. Again, the situation is that
only a couple of teams are competitive. I know that the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association have reached out to
the world in an attempt to assist other female organizations to grow their program. Of course we should be proud
that Canadians come forward without any selfish motives, only the love for our game.
This morning I sit here with TSN, for the last two hours listening to all the speculation as to who will be chosen to
represent Canada at the Sochi 2014 Olympics. Many combinations, names and reasons have been produced but the
final results will come from the words spoken by Mr. Yzerman. This list will be reviewed some time before the end
of January by the Canadian Olympics committee, so changes will happen, hopefully only as a result of injuries.
Will they make the correct choices? I suspect that the debate will continue right up to the drop of the game puck on
February 13th, and carrying on until well after the games have completed and the hardware is handed out.
GO CANADA GO