Want all the action without the ice? Ball hockey league about to face off
There will soon be an opportunity to play ball hockey in the Windsor area without having a game interrupted by the familiar warning of “Car!”
The popular street version, in which nets are often set up right in the middle of a road, is moving indoors with the start of the Windsor-Essex Ball Hockey League.
League organizer Will Quesnel plans to hold player registration in March with games starting in late April or early May when local arenas begin removing ice.
For years, Quesnel has run a floor hockey league, which uses a felt puck, out of the WFCU Centre and the John Atkinson Memorial Centre.
Quesnel said there are a couple of other ball hockey leagues around, but this is the only one sanctioned by the Ontario Ball Hockey Association.
The OBHA’s board of directors unanimously approved a WindsorEssex league Tuesday.
OBHA official Jamie Robillard said more than 10,000 players are in their organization, including a small youth league at Amherstburg’s St. Peter’s private school.
Initially, Quesnel hopes to offer competition in men’s C and D divisions. The D division is for recreational players while the C division would be slightly more competitive.
He’s planning a wide-open registration, however, and will add play for kids and women if the interest is there.
“We’re totally open,” Quesnel said. “I want to grow this as a community. Whatever is needed, I want to provide.”
He started a floor hockey league with 44 players in 2008. It grew to more than 200 players at its peak, with one league operating out of the WFCU gym and another at the Atkinson Centre.
He had to drop play at the WFCU when the gym floor was replaced with a rubber covering not conducive to a sliding puck.
Finding available double gym space proved daunting, so Quesnel changed it to a 10-team league on Monday nights at the Atkinson Centre, which left 50 people on a waiting list. “I can’t help them out,” he said. With ball hockey, he figures he’ll be able to find enough arena time to accommodate everyone.
“I’ll start with two teams if that’s the interest I get, but we’re ready for whatever the interest is,” he said.
Quesnel hopes to have a league website up by the end of the month. He’s already fielding inquiries from a Facebook page and is reachable by email at windsoressexbhl@gmail.com.
The landlocked version of hockey started in Toronto in the late ’60s. The oldest Canadian league is the Mississauga Ball Hockey Association, formed in 1971. The OBHA came along three years later.
Canada is one of 28 countries that are part of the World Ball Hockey Federation. Canada is the top-ranked country in the world — whether the game is being played five a side, four a side or three a side — with 12 gold medals, two silver and one bronze collectively.
Quesnel said he will take full team or individual registrations for adults, and individual registrations only for children. The fee for a season has not yet been determined.