Village Squire, 1977-03, Page 24SPORTS
Exciting peewee hockey action has attracted people from all over the continent over the years
to witness the Goderich Young Canada Week tournament.
Goderich's Young Canada week -
28 years old and still going strong
Once upon a time, about 28 years ago,
some members of the Goderich Lions Club
had an idea for a project which was almost
unheard of.
Why not, they asked, have a hockey
tournament during the Easter school
holidays for peewee teams from around the
province? It seems hard to believe now,
with hockey tournaments being held every
weekend from November to early April,
but at the time it was something really
unusual.
The idea caught on and over the years
the little tournament grew and grew until it
became one , of the two biggest tourna-
ments in Canada (the other being the
Quebec peewee tournament. Other tourn-
aments came and went, but the Goderich
Lions' Young Canada Week is still in a
class by itself. Teams often take as much
pride in winning the Young Canada Week
championship as they do in winning the
championships of their own leagues.
Things should be comfortably old hat for
organizers after 28 years, but this year
probably caused them to lose more sleep
than any year in a long time. The reason is
that familiar story of arena closings. The
Goderich arena, home of the tournament
for all those years, was closed last summer
by the provincial ministry of labours
crackdown on unsafe arena roofs. The roof
was removed and a new one installed but
the horrible weather conditions of
November, December, January and early
February made it such that construction
work was slowed to a crawl. The
completion date for the building was in
doubt.
It meant, says Paul Rivers, chairman of
this year's organizing committee, that the
committee almost had to plan two separate
tournaments, one for Goderich, if
everything went well, and one for Clinton if
things didn't go well.
By early March he was "97 or 98 percent
sure" it would be held in Goderich as
planned.
This 28th annual tournament will have
62 teams, including some from Quebec,
Michigan and all over Ontario.
The tournament over the years has
attracted a loyal following of fans, some
who come from other cities just to spend
the week in Goderich and see the
youngsters play hockey. They will no doubt
be happy if tradition remains intact and the
tournament is held in Goderich in 1977.
t1?1A IF
with all
your heart
Your gift to CARE means safer
water for rural families, thus
ending many serious problems. A
village pump means no more lost
time walking miles for the day's
supply.
It means better sanitation prac-
tices and reduction of energy -
sapping diseases. It means more
children can attend school. It
means their mothers have more
time to devote to household tasks.
the family garden or to learning
nutrition, hygiene, sanitation and
family planning at CARE -built
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help provide water systems for im-
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and improve storage facilities.
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