St. Peter’s Classic slims down to 40 teams this year
Move allows Ontario’s largest high school hockey tourney to use three referees per game
The largest high school hockey tournament in Ontario has downsized for 2019.
The St. Peter’s Classic has shrunk from 50 to 40 teams this year in order to make it more convenient for participating teams and to use a three-man referee system, says convener and host St. Peter Saints head coach Kevin Fitzgerald.
The tournament will be held Wednesday and Thursday at the Kinsmen Civic Centre, Evinrude Centre, Douro Community Centre, Ennismore’s Robert E. Young Recreation Complex and the Asphodel-Norwood Community Centre.
There will be 36 teams in four boys divisions and four teams in a girls division.
The host Saints and Cobourg’s St. Mary Thunder are the local entries among eight teams in the A Division. The B Division features 10 teams including the Fenelon Falls Falcons and Haliburton Highlands Redhawks.
The C Division has 12 teams including the Adam Scott Lions, Crestwood Mustangs, Holy Cross Hurricanes, Thomas A. Stewart Griffins, Lakefield College School, Norwood District Knights, Cobourg Collegiate Wolves, I.E. Weldon Wildcats and St. Thomas Aquinas. The junior division has six teams including two from St. Peter and one from Holy Cross.
The girls divisions feature local teams — St. Peter, Holy Cross,
I.E. Weldon and Hamilton’s St. Mary’s.
Fitzgerald said it was difficult to organize such a large tournament with three out of town arenas involved.
“Logistically it makes it a lot easier for the teams in the tournament. When you go over 42 teams it’s impossible to keep everybody at the same rink they play at all day so they have to be running all over the place. In a tournament where you have limitations on how long bus drivers can be on duty and all that sort of stuff it just got to be too much of a headache. When we cut it down to 42 or under every team is able to play all their games at the same rink and not have to run all over the place.”
One other factor is the availability of officials. The Torontoarea teams use a three-man referee system and would not come unless the tournament also sued the three-man system.
“Being a referee myself, we are so short of referees who are able to referee that level of hockey if you get too high you’re not going to be able to find guys to be able to do the games,” Fitzgerald said.
“We’ll run a bit of a hybrid. We’ll use two referees and a linesman. It tends to work a little better. We’ve only ever run two in the past with a four-man for the finals.”
Even with the size reduction, Fitzgerald is not aware of a larger high school tournament in the province.
“Nobody is really offering more than 24 to 28 spots,” he said.
Last year, Fitzgerald talked about expanding the tournament and he’d still like to do that in the future.
“When the dual-pad opens up at Trent or when the Millbrook rink opens up that could take in another 12 to 18 teams we could keep at those rinks,” he said.
Full tournament schedule and details can be found at app.gameonmobile.com by searching tournament No. 7113.