Huntsville Girls Hockey Association 40th Annual Hockey Tournament

On Friday, January 13, the Huntsville Girls Hockey Association welcomed almost 70 teams from across Ontario for its 40^th Annual HGHA Tournament. Tournament Director, Kerri Valentin, estimated that more than 2500 people, including 1000 players and 300 staff plus parents and siblings, arrived in Muskoka for this year’s event. Games were played in Huntsville, Baysville and Burks Falls from January 13 to 15. Games started in Huntsville at 9am on Friday with the opening ceremony to welcome everyone and to see the first puck drop.

The weekend was a busy one as teams arrived, played and exited the arenas in Huntsville, Burks Falls and Baysville. The Huntsville Sting girls’ teams skated their best and worked together in every game until the very end of the third period in their final games but no teams moved forward to the finals. Way to represent your teams and your town, Huntsville Sting Girls!

Here’s an overview of the results:

• Novice HL Huntsville Sting played in three games, tying their first game against the Caledon KC Swim, and losing against Ayr Rockets and Caledon Scotia McLeod.
• Atom Division had two girls team enter in the tournament – Atom 4 Huntsville Sting Gold and Atom 9 Huntsville Sting Black. The Sting Gold won their game against the Sudbury Purple Tornados, tied their game against Lindsay Lynx Purple and lost to the Leaside White Wolves. The Sting Black tried their hardest while playing against Caledon Cairns Roofing, Leaside Black and Leaside Sky Blue Sharks but lost their games.
• Pee Wee Huntsville Sting also fought hard playing against the Caledon Garden Foods, Leaside Chili Peppers and Leaside Navy Thunder but lost their games.
• Bantam Huntsville Sting tied their game against the Blue Heron Flyers and lost their two other games against Oakville Purple and Leaside Teal.
• Midget HL Huntsville Sting played all three games with strength as a team but lost against the Erin Shamrocks, Pembroke and Nepean Kavanagh.
• Senior C Huntsville Sting won two games against Kirkland Lake Blast and Newtonbrook but lost to West Northhumberland.

It was a competitive weekend for all participants but the level of respectful sportsmanship was the highlight overall for the tournament. Congratulations to all winning teams and thank you to those who participated, volunteered, came to cheer and of course those who coordinated the tournament.

Huntsville has seven teams playing in the league this year with a team in each division. The girls that make up our Huntsville teams are from across Muskoka and Almaguin. This HGHA tournament allows the association to offer a fun and affordable program, reducing financial barriers which may prevent girls from participating in sports. They also received grant money from Hockey Canada last year which was used to purchase loaner equipment for players and goalies, again to reduce barriers to play.

“We have over 100 female hockey players in our association and are so excited to keep building our program to provide young women of our community with a fun, competitive program to play THE BEST sport in the world,” said Valentin.

Learn more about the Huntsville Girls Hockey Association at huntsvillegha.ca.

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