Students from Pope John Paul II, St. Louis School and École Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys hit the ice on Friday, March 9th for an exciting three on three hockey tournament. The tournament was the wrap-up event for the Hockey Skills Development Program, under the Kenora Catholic District School Board.
"It's fun," said Hudson Willett a Grade 5 student at PJP. "I've learned new drills, I've learned kicking it up through your skates, and just better shooting."
The hockey development program saw children from all three schools practice their hockey skills once a week for the past eight weeks under head coach Dave Turner and assistant coaches James Hendy and Kevin Muise
"It's a big challenge to coach so many different skill levels. We leaned on some of the more developed players to help out and lead by example," said Turner. "We try to keep the drills simple but enough that everyone gets something out of them. The higher level kids you push to do more and lower level to increase their abilities. We saw a big improvement in everyone."
The tournament was played in a three on three style with four teams total, including one all girls team. Molly Hendy was on the all-girls team and is a Grade 6 student from SMB. She spoke about what she took away from the development program.
"Hockey isn't all about being competitive. It's about practicing and being your best and having fun," she said. Of course, she said it was also a lot of fun to play against the boys.
"It was really fun to try and prove that we are better than the boys," said Hendy.
Active Living Lead for the KCDSB, Megan Derouard, organized the program which is in its first year. She explained why hockey teaches more than just physical skills.
"Kids that are active are more focused and better mentally prepared," she said. "Time management and also being able to be committed to a program is also an important life-lesson. Every Monday or Tuesday or whenever they practiced, they knew that they had to be prepared, have their equipment and show up on time. You see all these life-skills being taught through this hockey program."
The children were divided up into various practice times throughout the week, however, it was always during lunch or after school so that it didn't interfere with classes, something Derouard said was really important to the program.
The final tournament saw four teams compete, black, yellow (the all-girls team), blue and red. Students were mixed so there were no school-specific teams. Games were 15 minutes each with no breaks and only three players on the ice. Any penalties were banked towards penalty shots at the end of the game.
The black and yellow teams faced off in the bronze medal match, with the black team winning after penalty shots. In the gold medal match, the red team led the entire game but a penalty shot by blue player and PJP student, Matteo Kakeway, tied the game up at 5-5.
"That was my first goal," said Kakeway excitedly. He had never played hockey prior to the development program. "I practice every day. I love how you can skate really fast."
It then came to additional penalty shots with the red team coming out victorious. They all rushed out onto the ice to celebrate their big win after all their hard-work over the past couple of months in the hockey skills program.