The 33rd Annual Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament

By Glen Crichton

The most prestigious Bantam Hockey tournament in North America gets underway in beautiful Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, starting on Wednesday, April 11/2001 and running through until Monday, April 16/2001. Defending tourney champs Detroit Honeybaked Hams return to defend their title and after a one year absence the 1999 tourney champs, the St.Louis Amateur Blues return and will likely be one of the favorites if not one of the most watched teams as they boast the son of former NHL’er Peter Stastny.

This tournament which started in 1967, has been a fixture for bantam teams from all over North America and Europe, however while it’s been a few years since any European entries have come to the tournament, the United States is well represented again with four teams including the St.Louis Amateur Blues, Detroit Honeybaked, Detroit Compuware and the Michigan Ice Dogs. St.Louis, Honeybaked and Compuware have all won titles here in the past and should be strong while the ice Dogs make their first appearance.

A long list of National Hockey League talent has played on the ice in Kamloops during this tourney including Mario Lemieux, Vincent Lecavalier, David Legwand, Scott Hannan, Andrew Ference, Dimitri Nabakov, Darcy Tucker, Mark Recchi, Brendan Morrison, Tyson Nash, Mike Peca, Adam Foote, Keith Primeau, Daryl Sydor, Rod Brind’Amour, Mike Modano, Joe Sakic, Jimmy Carson, Tony Twist, Murray Baron, Cliff Ronning and many others, the list is overwhelming as is the quality of hockey played during the sixty round robin games and ten playoff games in the four arenas scattered around city of Kamloops (pop. approx. 85000).

Opening ceremonies and final games are played in the comfortable confines of Sport Mart Place (formerly Riverside Coliseum), which seats 5,000. The three other arenas used are Memorial, Sport Center and the Brock Recreation Center. Parents of players should be reminded to bring their golf clubs as there are four good golf courses all within a twenty minute drive of downtown and the weather is generally mild (10-20C) during the playing of the tournament, though I’m not guaranteeing it.

Throughout the tournament I’ll give daily reports on teams and the scores for games played that day. Starting on Friday I’ll begin posting player profiles and although I’d like to see every team and do profiles on every player I can’t. I only do profiles on players that I can see at least twice, preferably three times and I can only watch a few players per team, per game, so please understand I try to do as much as I can, but I’m only one person. You may agree or disagree with my assessments and if you have any questions regarding the tournament action or players please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on my name.