Lesleigh Campbell | Special to the 51暗网
The U7 Jasper Bearcubs hosted their annual home tournament this past weekend, welcoming seven other teams from all over Alberta.
Making the trek all the way to Jasper were: Spruce Grove, Grande Cache, Hinton and four teams from Whitecourt.聽
In a tournament for the youngest group in hockey, the name of the game is 鈥渇un.鈥�
With that in mind, Bearcubs鈥� team manager Lena Fraser went to work, making this the funnest tournament in the west.
If you weren鈥檛 there to see it in person, let me paint you a picture.
Tiny little players took the ice through fog and special lighting, with music blaring from the speakers.
Talk about making an entrance.
Later in the day, Jasper the Bear was spotted in the stands, and rumour has it he was cheering for the home team.
There was also a paper airplane toss, an amazing raffle table, welcome packages for each player, a shootout at the end of each game, awards for MVP鈥檚/Heart&Hustle and beautiful medals for each player as a keepsake to remember all the fun they had.
Each team played three games over the two days.
The Bearcubs played against two different Whitecourt teams, and their last game was against the Hinton Timbits.
They don鈥檛 keep score at this age, but the excitement on the players faces when they scored a goal, or made a save was priceless.
One little guy had his whole celebration routine down pat, skating all the way back to his own end with his arms in the air before tapping his stick on the side of his net.
It was adorable.
With the ages ranging from 4-6 in this group, there is quite a variation of skill and focus.
While some players generally look like they are playing hockey, others are more into chatting with the referee, doing snow angels, and waving at the crowd.
But coaches Jessica Prinn, Brian Groth, and Jim Campbell did a great job of making sure they all had fun in their own way.
Tournaments like this wouldn鈥檛 be possible without volunteers and donations, so the U7 Jasper Bearcubs would like to say thank you to all of the businesses and individuals who made donations, and of course to all of the parents who spent their weekend making sure it went off without a hitch.
With only three more practices remaining, the 2021-2022 season will soon wrap up for this group, but stay tuned for exciting playoff news coming soon for the oldest group in Jasper Minor Hockey, your U15 Bearcats.
