The ponds have been cleared, the tents taken down, and life is back to normal, but the legacy of this year’s Kimmett Cup will linger long in the minds of those who participated in it.
The 3-on-3 pond hockey tournament which is in its eighth year, and was started in memory of Lindsay Leigh Kimmett, saw a record attendance brave the cold weather on Jan. 15 and 16.
“This is a classic Canadian hockey tournament, and it feels great to win it,” said Joe Kendal, whose team, Das Cows, were this year’s competitive winners.
“It’s been fantastic. We’re outside, it’s cold, but it was a lot of fun.”
Did the outdoor ice surface make it difficult to be competitive compared to playing on a typical arena rink surface?
“Absolutely,” Kendal said. “Especially after the first two games it got really choppy. There were a lot of cracks, and the puck was bouncing all over the place, but everyone was on the same surface so I’m not complaining.”
Was this Kendal’s first time taking part?
“No,” he said. “Our team has a couple of base players, but we had a bunch of new guys on the team so it was our first time playing as a unit.”
What was the final score in the championship game?
“I don’t know,” laughed Kendal. “It doesn’t really matter, it was all for a good cause.”
The event managed to raise around $120,000 for the Children’s Wish Foundation, which was more than tournament organizer Reid Kimmett originally expected due to the recent economic downturn.
“The amount we raised this year is quite similar to what we’ve raised in years past,” Kimmett said. “To be honest, we thought we might get a bit less given what’s going on with the economy. So, to get a little bit more than what we expected was great.”
Team-wise, this has been the biggest edition of the tournament yet, with 53 teams taking part this year, up from 48 last time around. Most of the teams have a connection to Cochrane, Calgary, or the University of Calgary Medical School. However, Kimmett stated that, “there were players from every province.”
“This was the biggest turnout we’ve had yet,” Kimmett said. “We’ve had a little bit of growth in numbers, but we’re kind of restrained by the amount of ice we have, so this year was the maximum we could do.”
What does Kimmett attribute the consistent growth to?
“Word of mouth,” he said. “One person will join a team one year, and have such a great time that they’ll want to bring more of their friends, and then those people will split off and make even more new teams.
“Every year more and more growth happens that way.”
In two weeks time, Kimmett expects to start planning for next year’s event and solving the problems of an ever-growing tournament.
“We’ve always wanted to be an inclusive tournament, he said.
“Anyone that wants to play, we want to be able to accommodate them. There were a couple of teams that were on the waitlist this year that didn’t get in, so we’re going to do everything we can to get people in that are excited about the tournament and want to honour Lindsay’s legacy and contribute to the Children’s Wish Foundation.”
