North Bay Mayor Al McDonald picks a corner on a Voodoos goalie to launch North Bay's newest ball hockey tournament. PHOTO COURTESY LOUISE GOULET.
North Bay Mayor Al McDonald dangled a hockey stick and fired a shot past the outstretched leg of a masked goalie decked in Powassan Voodoos colours Tuesday afternoon.
The Mayor’s snipe signified the launch of the 2015 YMCA-Voodoos 2015 Ball Hockey Classic which will be held on the downtown streets of North Bay on May 23rd.
The junior A team, which does its dry land training at the North Bay YMCA location during the season, teamed up with the facility to help raise funds for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign.
“We’ve got a great partnership here with the YMCA and we got together with officials at the Y to talk about a viable fundraiser and we came up with this one day Ball Hockey tournament. I’ve seen the interest ball hockey attracts in the city and we thought an outdoor event, with a very reasonable cost would be a great way to support the Strong Kids Campaign and allow hockey players young and old to play some fun road hockey outdoors,” said Voodoos General Manager Chris Dawson who was joined by Voodoos forward Jake Staples and Voodoos officials including announcer Jake Friskney and team co-owner Dan Rivet at the press conference.
The one-day 3 on 3 event is open to adult, teen and youth teams with each team guaranteed three 20-minute games. A social will follow at Cecil's Saturday night.
Participants will also receive a t-shirt, a team photo and a BBQ lunch prepared by Burger World. Trophies will be presented to the winning teams in each division.
Registration forms are available at the YMCA as well as at both Burger World locations or online at http://www.ymcanorthbay.com/ymca/register-for-our-ymca-voodoos-ball-hockey-classic/
