The busy end of ice season at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre is underway.
Wednesday night, the town of Sackville will try to win back the trophy for the annual Town vs Gown charity hockey game starting at 6pm at the Civic Centre. The event is in support of the Sackville Food Bank, with one food item per person for entry.
Sackville recreation director Matt Pryde says the tradition continues with a slight change this year. “We decided to have a couple young folks in town, Jory Parsons and Jesse Estabrooks, put together the teams,” says Pryde. “So you can expect younger people playing and they might be a little bit faster than us old guys.” Pryde says there will also be kids activities, prizes and competitions.
This year’s ice season at the Tantramar Veteran’s Memorial Civic Centre has been extended by a few weeks to help make up for missed games and practices this winter during the strictest of public health restrictions due to the pandemic.
CHMA stopped in at the Civic Centre last week to meet some of Sackville’s minor hockey players. We spoke with a group from the U13 Sackville Rangers as they were getting ready to face off against a team from Amherst.
Veronica Locke is the volunteer manager for the U13 Rangers, and her daughter also plays on the team. She says that having the sport as an outlet was especially important during the pandemic for mental and physical health of the kids. “They were able to be on the ice just to see their friends, get some exercise, kind of forget a little bit about the pandemic, and do something that they love,” says Locke.
This coming weekend, the Civic Centre will host the U15 provincial tournament, featuring home team the Sackville Legionnaires. Games start Friday morning and continue through to finals on Sunday.
The final event for this year’s ice season at the Civic Centre is a 4 on 4 Youth Hockey Challenge. Pryde says there are about 80 kids registered for the event, with a waitlist. “it’s the program that we offer at the end of the hockey season, just to give kids enough extra opportunity to get out there,” says Pryde. “It’s quite popular and we have kids from Amherst and Moncton and Riverview and Sackville and all over playing in it. So it’s a good tournament.”
The tournament runs April 11 through 15, over Easter weekend.
