Make Moose Jaw Hockeyville
The Moose Jaw Minor Hockey Association is hoping Moose Jaw will soon have another nickname. Hockeyville.
The local organization is one of the dozens of individuals and groups that have submitted nominations for the prestigious contest, which sees $250,000 awarded to the winner for rink improvements, as well as a National Hockey League pre-season game played in the community. That’s where local minor hockey supporters come in – while 80 per cent of the final winning score comes from the ‘community story’ that acts as the nomination, another 20 per cent is added through ‘rally activity’, which tracks the social media following of each post.
As such, as many likes, shares and tweets as possible are needed to push Moose Jaw into the top four finalists, with the potential winnings going toward a wide range of improvements at the Pla-Mor Palace. The upgrades would largely centre around expanding the current dressing room capacity at the two rinks to accommodate the rapidly growing female hockey divi- sion,
“And there are certain other small things that could be done with the coaches benches and other things in general, like digitizing the rink,” Moose Jaw minor hockey president Patrick Boyle explained. “We still have chalkboards saying who is playing where, so we’re falling behind in some respects compared to other parts of the country... Things have to get weighed against other stuff, but if kids don’t have things to do and don’t have recreational facilities, you have a bigger problem. So, I think it’s a wise investment and from our end trying to leverage that would go a long way.”
As with any national level contest, Moose Jaw will be up against some stiff compe- tition. But as the Hockey Day in Canada and One Horse Town wins show, when Moose Javians fire up the social media machine, anything can happen. “You miss 100 per cent of the shots you take so we’re trying to get the word out and like and share and move that post along and see what activity we can generate,” Boyle said. “We’ll do our best and you never know, we’re hopeful.” Arena nominations take place through Feb. 10, with judging beginning Feb. 11. The top four finalists will be announced Mar. 16, with final-round voting running for 20 1/2 hours beginning at 12 p.m. on Mar. 29. The winner will be announced Mar. 30.