The early return of wintry weather makes it easier for some to accept that minor hockey season is underway.
This season, Bashaw Minor Hockey (BMHA) is once again back to four teams following a season that saw a bantam team return to the fold. That also means player registration numbers are down a bit over last year because of one less team.
BMHA communications director Cristy Lidberg explained that without the bantam club, registrations are about the same as it would be for the four teams last year.
“We have four teams this year — initiation, novice, atom and peewee,” she stated.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t make a bantam team work. We just didn’t have the numbers registered to support a team.”
Lidberg noted there were just five players interested in playing bantam in Bashaw.
“There may have been a few others on the fence, but not enough that were willing to commit,” she said.
“BMHA president Jack Dawbin spoke with representatives from Forestburg and Delburne, since neither of their associations have a bantam team this year to see about joining together. We were also hopeful that we had secured a goalie, but all of that ended up falling through.”
However, only one out of the five that were interested isn’t playing hockey this season. Two are staying locally on the peewee Stars as overage players, while one each will be on bantam teams in Stettler and Ponoka.
Meanwhile, everything else is all set with practices having started last week and BMHA entering its second season of play in the Northern Alberta Interlock (NAI) league with its atom and peewee squads.
“We have our coaches all in place for all teams and we are so thankful to have willing volunteers devoting their time to our teams. We also had a great year last season in NAI. They were very accommodating by separating each tier into four divisions, which significantly cut down on driving times,” she added.
Puck drop
The pre-season for Bashaw’s hockey squads will start this weekend and Lidberg encourages anyone that wants to watch local hockey to join them at the rink and cheer on the players.
The peewee Stars are the first to strap on the blades, playing host to Leduc Oct. 13 at 2:45 p.m. followed with a trip to Sedgewick the next day to face off with Battle River. The rest of the team’s pre-season see them at home to Wetaskiwin Oct. 20 (2:45 p.m.) then in Millet on Oct. 28.
The atom Stars have to wait an extra week before getting into game mode.
They open the pre-season on home ice against Viking Oct. 20 at 12:30 p.m. then travelling to Daysland the next day to play the Thunderstars. The team will then be in Leduc on Oct. 26 and close out the month at home Oct. 27 (12:30 p.m.) against Battle River.
jordie.dwyer@ponokanews.com
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