Since 1987, it has sat there, in the basement of the Community Centre, waiting.
‘It’, in this case is the Tumbler Ridge Midget Tournament trophy.
Has it been that long since Tumbler Ridge has been able to field a Midget Hockey team, and is that why the trophy for the Tumbler Ridge Midget Tournament has not been handed out in 38 years?
No, says Monty Hendricks, who coaches the team. “We’ve had a few teams since then. The last team was in 2006–2007.
Still, he says, he’s not sure why there were no home tournaments over that time, or—if there were—why the trophy has not been handed out in that time.
But after a failed attempt to get a rep team started last year, this year, Tumbler Ridge has put together a U-18 team.
And they’re pretty good.
So good, in fact, that the newly-formed team has won the first documented U-18 tournament in Tumbler Ridge in nearly four decades.
And it wasn’t even close.
Tumbler Ridge won the first game against Mackenzie five goals to zero. Their second game, against Prince George Orange, they won 8–3.
Their closest game of the event was the third, against Fort St. John Northern Spring (one of two teams from Fort St. John), where they won 4–1.
This put them into the first round of the playoffs against the second team in pool 2, Prince George Green, which they won 8–3 and sending them into the playoffs, once again against Fort St. John Northern Spring.
Tumbler Ridge got out ahead of the Fort St. John team, and stayed there for the whole game, handily beating the Fort St. John team 9–3 in a game that was both fast and furious. The most furious moment was when a fight broke out behind the Fort St. John goal, seeing four players—two from Tumbler Ridge and two from Fort St. John—getting booted from the game.
Coach Monty Hendrickson says the team has been putting in a lot of work. “There’s been a lot of time and effort to get to where we are now. A lot of weeks we’re on the ice four times.”
He says last year the plan was to put together a rep team and play in Alberta but that didn’t come to fruition, so this year they’re playing in the Northeast Recreational Hockey League with eight other teams.
Currently, the team has five wins, two ties and no losses in league play. Their next home game is December 14 at 10 am.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
