Minor hockey wraps up massive celebration

Pulling off something the size of Quikcard Edmonton Minor Hockey Week takes the same amount of planning, strategy and effort that it would take to mobilize a small army.

With 8,500 players on 537 teams playing 837 games on 34 sheets of ice over 10 days, not to mention the 3,200 volunteers who helped make it all happen, the efforts of organizers of a tournament that, not so long ago, was the biggest of its kind in the world, should be celebrated every bit as much as the sport itself.

The thing is, now that the last of the 1,634 gold medals have been awarded to the winners of this year’s 69 championship games, which wrapped up on Sunday, it’s not as though Hockey Edmonton can look forward to putting its collective feet up for any sort of break.

After all, it’s not that much more hockey than their tireless efforts normally produce at any other time throughout the season.

“The focus changes,” said Hockey Edmonton executive director Dean Hengel.

“We’ve got 800 or so games in minor hockey week, which is more than we would have in an average week, but not a whole lot more.”

It might feel like it, though, for parents who barely make it home from one minor hockey week game in time to figure out when and where the next one is.

“Typically, we have a practice and a game in a week for federation hockey programs,” Hengel said, noting each team plays twice over the first three or four days of minor hockey week.

“Tuesday through Sunday, we’re on the back side of the schedule, with our 69 finals on Saturday and Sunday.”

And then it’s over. Only to pick right back up with their regularly scheduled programming.

What it amounts to is a heck of a lot of hockey over the course of a season.

But how much is too much? It’s a question those involved at the grassroots level of hockey have seriously looked into.

“We’re encouraging our athletes to start doing other sports, so it’s not hockey, hockey, hockey all the time, through the whole summer with this camp, that camp,” said Hockey Edmonton president Mark Doram.

“They need to develop other skills, which in turn comes back and benefit them in the hockey program, whether it’s track, whether it’s soccer, whether it’s football.”

Not that they’re looking to push kids away from hockey, by any means. But they definitely don’t want youngsters getting fed up and walking away.

Not that hockey is alone when it comes to readily available opportunities of early specialization.

But why interrupt a child who is playing with friends on some playground equipment, in order to attend a formal session of dryland training?

“Let your kid be a kid,” Doram said.

“Let them go to the swimming pool or let them play with friends. The big thing is not burning the athlete out.

“The child can get to the point where he or she absolutely detests the sport, and it’s because they haven’t had those other opportunities to grow.”