Noah Dugas recalls how amazing the stories from his cousin Nate were about playing in the Ontario Hockey Federation Championships last year.
“He said it was pretty fun and they had a fun time eating dinner and seeing all the other teams and stuff (at the banquet),” said Dugas.
This year Noah Dugas and his teammates will be doing the same thing as the North Bay West Ferris Major Atom AA Trappers announced this morning they will be hosting the OHF Championships in North Bay the weekend of April 13 to 15th.
Head Coach Marc Long, who has been working on the bid process with his team since March, made the official announcement at Memorial Gardens this morning.
“I wanted this for the kids, it has been a long time since 1997 when North Bay hosted the last OHF’s, and that was in Bantam and not the Atom age group which is what we are,” stated Long.
The tournament will include two teams from the NOHA, and one each from the OMHA, the GTHL, and the Alliance, in Southwestern Ontario in the five-team event.
The Major Atom coach says this may be a once in a lifetime experience for the players and coaches.
“There are very few opportunities you get to go to OHF’s,” noted Long who played professionally and in the OHL for the Sudbury Wolves and Oshawa Generals and never played for an OHF title.
“So this is exciting even for me to coach in the OHF’s but more importantly to give these kids an opportunity, not only have they won the last two NOHA’s and they deserve to be here, and we want to get there by winning, we don’t want to be just the host team,” said the competitive coach.
Larry Tougas, admits he is not a hockey guy, but the City’s Sports Tourism guru helped Long through the bid application process.
“Anytime you can get a provincial event into North Bay I am totally supportive,” said Tougas.
“This being a hockey event, it bodes well for our facility that we have here at Memorial Gardens so it is such an economic driver, like hockey in this town is an economic driver in terms of Sports Tourism and we have to get that to another level.”
The actual rink or rinks that are utilized have not been confirmed yet and will depend on things like the potential North Bay Battalion playoff schedule.
The event will start with a very fancy banquet which will be held at the Best Western.
“These kids are going to feel like they are in the NHL,” said Long.
“We have Darren Turcotte who is going to be our guest speaker, and it will be a great night being held at the Best Western and we are looking forward to doing it, it will be a great night and a great year, 2018 for the kids.”
