For Dave Knight, 麻豆社国产Minor Hockey鈥檚 tournament coordinator, every local game is a road trip.
He lives in Maple Ridge and makes the trek up the Sea to Sky Highway to 麻豆社国产each time there is a tournament, and since becoming involved, there have been many more tournaments, including a bantam house one this coming weekend.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty amazing. He lives in Maple Ridge, and he comes all the way here,鈥� said 麻豆社国产Minor Hockey Association president Derek Cranfield.
When Cranfield moved to Squamish, it was not a destination for hockey tournaments, but he wanted to change this when he joined the executive.
鈥淭hat was one of the things I really pushed for,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 even a whole lot of interest in travelling for tournaments at that point.鈥�
A few years ago, Knight agreed to come on board to help bring more events here. He brought a lot of experience to the task; he had run tournaments for years in Maple Ridge before eventually handing over the reins.聽
Knight鈥檚 connection to 麻豆社国产is his son Tim, a coach and executive member with minor hockey.
As coordinator, he makes sure all the kids have something to take home, including programs, custom team posters, medals and T-shirts.
He also ensures the tournaments remain competitive as the weekend moves along. This means reseeding the teams from their original pools into new gold, silver and bronze brackets, in which the teams can keep competing for a trophy.
鈥淚 try to make the pools as even as possible,鈥� he said.
Every tournament can pose challenges, such as the time of year during which teams might be hesitant to travel.聽
For the atom rep tournament over the Family Day weekend, 麻豆社国产only had one team instead of two competing. This meant there was only one team鈥檚 worth of volunteers to help with tasks such as running the time clock during games, even though it is the biggest tournament of the year. Despite this, Knight says the team鈥檚 volunteers were crucial in making sure things ran smoothly.
Ice time is also an issue. In Maple Ridge, he had more ice available, including some in nearby communities. The extra space allowed for large tournaments, sometimes with more than 100 teams taking part, including ones from the Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, Slovakia and even Japan.聽
In 麻豆社国产at present, there鈥檚 only one ice sheet, he said. 鈥淲ith one sheet of ice, it brings challenges.鈥澛�
For last month鈥檚 atom event, Knight and the tournament team had to hold a couple of games in North Vancouver on the Thursday evening for teams on their way to 麻豆社国产for the weekend. Keeping the games on schedule is of the utmost importance for Knight when hosting because the schedule for the larger events can run from 7 a.m. straight through to 10 p.m., with little downtime in between games.
鈥淚 like to be here at all times in case something goes wrong,鈥� he said.
Hosting a tournament is big job, and it can mean anything from overseeing arrangements for accommodations and donations from local businesses to making sure the games stay on schedule while overseeing all the little details.
鈥淎 lot of things go into making a tourney bigger than we can actually hold,鈥� he said.
Knight is quick to point out that while he oversees tournaments, he is far from the only person involved. For the recent atom tournament, Lindsay Avant stepped in to take over from Heather Hedberg to coordinate the officials.
Troy Lynn and Ernie Weinberg helped give the event its distinctive look with the 鈥淥ld West鈥� poster design programs and banners.
As well, he credits his wife Dawn, son Tim and daughter Crystal, as well as members of the hockey association and the host teams, who run the clock, pick music for between plays, line up prizes and hold 50/50 draws.
For how much 麻豆社国产has become a destination for tournaments in recent years, Knight still has bigger ambitions and has plans to bring in teams from Europe.
For now though, he can probably rest on his laurels for a little while, at least once the long hockey season is finally over. As Cranfield puts it, 鈥淗e鈥檚 been able to take it to a level that I thought was not even possible.鈥�
