Some of the country’s best ball hockey players are facing off in Winnipeg this week for the Canadian National Ball Hockey Championships.
The tournament is dedicated to former Team Manitoba player and Humboldt Broncos captain Logan Schatz as well as the entire Broncos team and their loved ones.
The 20-year-old hockey player died in the horrific collision between the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team’s bus and a transport truck on April 6. Fifteen other people were killed and 13 more injured in the crash.
Schatz, originally from Allan, Sask., also played ball hockey for Team Manitoba as a junior player.
“I guess they couldn’t put a team together one year and so Manitoba recruited him to come play for our U-19 team and that team actually won a championship,” recalled Jeff Dzikowicz, event director for the championships.
Schatz also won a silver medal for Team Canada in the Under 20 division.
“So many of the players are actually on our men’s team. They played alongside Logan so they have a strong connection to him,” Dzikowicz said.
“I just think the hockey community and ball hockey community want to honour him and honour the legacy of those guys.”
It’s the first time in nine years the Manitoba Ball Hockey Association is hosting the championships.
Together with the Canadian Ball Hockey Association, a special ceremony will be held in which the two organizations will announce the creation of the “Logan Schatz Award.” It will be presented to the league’s top junior ball hockey player.
“The ball hockey community, it’s not huge. It’s not as big as the ice hockey community, but it’s fairly big and everyone seems to know each other. When something like that happens, everybody’s connected,” said Dzikowicz.
Friend and survivor of the bus crash Matthieu Gomercic will be dropping the ball for the ceremonial faceoff.
The tournament features more than 20 teams and runs from Aug. 6-11 at Bell MTS Iceplex and Keith Bodley Arena. The championships are divided into three divisions: Men’s, Women’s and Masters.
Comments