Great Assists

Jump to Comments

This 8th Annual Ernie Clayton Memorial Peewee House League Tournament was held this past weekend in Welland. I was on hand to provide in-game music and announcing duties for all but two games in Welland’s Main Arena, so I was witness to a lot of fine hockey being played during the competition, but only saw about half of the action that took place since I missed all the games played at the Youth Arena.

What I will take away from the tournament more than anything is the memories of seeing families thoroughly enjoy themselves together, and kids giving it their all on the ice.  From Cumberland Hawks players #10 Gabriel Grimard and #15 Nicolas Jerome dancing on the ice during the warm-ups and trying to get the crowd pumped up by waving their arms side-to-side to the boisterous fans from all the visiting teams who often out-cheered our own Welland fans, Welland was definitely the place you wanted to be this past weekend.

I have a few people I would like to acknowledge for their efforts over the weekend:

- Eric Harper and Tournament Committee who put in long hours into planning and running the tournament to ensure that everything ran smoothly and everyone had as much fun as possible.

- Co-Announcer Dave Alfieri, who not only did a fantastic job of sounding like Andy Frost, but who was a lot of fun to hang around with in the press box.

- Tyler LeClair, for not only entertaining me on the ice with his great efforts in goal for the Jimmy D’s Mechanics (earning his first assist of the season in the process), but also for providing me an even bigger assist in the press box by playing the music for several hours on the weekend when I needed a break.

- Brandon Seguin, for stepping in and announcing a game for me when my eyes no longer could focus to read the names on the gamesheet.

- Brandon Boss, Ben Boss and Frank Zucchet, for all their efforts over the course of the weekend, not the least of which was filling in for me and Dave in the Press Box when we had to miss the Championship Game.

- To Pellerin’s Photography, for preserving some great moments of the tournament through their excellent action photography. I hope you had a chance to visit their booth and place your order, if not, you can contact them through their website.

- To all the other sponsors, including presenting sponsor Vesuvius Canada, for making this tournament possible.

- To all participants, for giving 100% on the ice and displaying such showing great sportsmanship on and off-the-ice and to their parents for showing such great enthusiasm in the crowd.

Numerous players left their mark on our memories for their excellent efforts on the ice during the tournament.  Several players drew our attention based on the hard work they put into each shift, whether or not they ended up among the tournament’s scoring leaders.  Naturally we cheered for the Welland teams and players who we were familiar with, but we couldn’t help cheering for players from the out-of-town teams nearly an equal amount of the time.  You don’t have to be the biggest on the ice to be the baddest, just ask Leo Guilhem of the Gloucester Cougars who was co-leader in tournament scoring with teammate Julian Clyne.  Tyler Kapralik of Newmarket’s Waits Bathroom Plus team lead his team with 11 points, however, we found ourselves cheering for teammate Daniel Calicchia just as hard when he finally scored in the semi-final game in front of us.  We did not know he had already scored a goal in an earlier game, but what we did know is that he was one of the hardest working players on the ice that we watched all weekend.

There were some great goaltending performances throughout but the goalie that left the biggest impression on us was Bowman Barnett of Welland’s Lorne’s Leafs.  You probably couldn’t tell that he was not the team’s regular netminder because he certainly looked like he has been playing goal his entire life.  Truth is that he was playing goal for the first time during this tournament in a last-minute relief role.

Then there was the great story of “Jackson” Gun Jun Lee who comes to Welland’s Jimmy D’s Mechaniks all the way from Korea.  He managed to earn an assist during the tournament, but we were truly hoping he would score a goal as well.  In any event, he represented his country well and will have plenty of stories of his own to tell when he returns home.

So many stories like these deserve to be told, but often you don’t hear about them unless you are directly involved with the team or player themselves.  Feel free to pass along your own memories of the tournament…

For all the results of the tournament, please visit ,a href=”http://www.ernieclayton.com”>Ernie Clayton Memorial Tournament

Don’t forget that Welland will host its annual Little NHL Tournament in March, presented by Boston Pizza, which promises to be equally entertaining.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Sports Writing/Commentary, Tournaments/Playdowns

Tags: Sports Writing/Commentary, Tournaments/Playdowns