The Parry Sound area’s first Pond Hockey Tournament is set for the first week of February.
The Otter Lake Cup Pond Hockey Tournament will take place from February 3rd to the 5th and is still looking for more teams. Devin Morley, the tournament organizer says there is an open division, a 19 plus, an over 40’s division, and a ladies’ division.
Morley says each team is a minimum of four players and a maximum of eight and the play is four on four format with no goalies. He says the tournament is also putting together a list of players that want to play but don’t have a group of people to play with and is planning to make free-agent teams from the list. Morley says there are 18 teams registered as of Thursday, and they are looking to get up to about 60.
Morley says one of the partners in the tournament is the Wasauksing First Nation, adding there’s going to be a really big opening ceremony, planned with the First Nation.
“There are going to be spirit dancers. We are also going to have an eternal flame going for the whole tournament. There will be a big vendor tent that we’re putting up in the field that will have vendors and a beer tent. We’re going to have food trucks and there will also be a buffet inside the resort as well as a DJ who’ll be playing music throughout the entire day and kind of announcing as he goes,” he says.
In addition, Morley says there will be some fundraising as well, “we are doing a silent auction that’ll be going towards the Parry Sound High School and we’re going to be doing a couple of other fundraising things that are to be determined at this point,” he says. Morley says the tournament is asking High School volunteers to help with the timekeeping and score some community hours. “So we figured it would be great to give back to the high school as well in that respect,” he says.
As for contingency plans for bad weather, Morley says the organizers are watching the weather closely. He says it looks like it’s going to be dipping down cold enough throughout the next two weeks or so, for the tournament to go ahead. “If it in fact is not enough ice on the lake, we have a couple of backup plans that we’re trying to work with right now,” he says.
Morley says it’s going to be a great weekend and hopes to see everybody there from the whole Parry Sound region as well as from some other areas.
You can register your team by contacting Morley at 705 706 2949 or [email protected]