Eight top Western Canadian hockey teams will be in Penticton for the B.C. Interior Stars Cup AAA Invitational tournament April 10 to 12.
Along with the host Interior Stars, the tournament features eight and nine-year-olds on the Huskie Prospects from Saskatoon, the Surrey Rangers, Vancouver Vipers, Calgary SpartanONE, Vancouver Junior Steelers, Vancouver BC Bears and the Manitoba X-Treme from Winnipeg.
“It’s going to be high calibre, very tough competition,” said Interior Stars coach and general manager Shea Sanche. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Sanche hopes the tournament attracts fans as he said watching kids this age is a “ton of fun.”
“You get to see some of the top kids from Western Canada,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting hockey.”
Jason Tansem, the BCIS Cup tournament co-ordinator, said the calibre of play will be high because the tournament isn’t open to any team. Clubs are screened to assure competitive games and there were about 20 teams that applied.
The Stars roster has two Penticton players, Jesse Sanche and Cole Wadsworth, who are joined by one player from Spokane, Wash., Salmon Arm, Prince George, Oyama, Vernon, Kamloops, five from West Kelowna and three from Kelowna. The Stars tryouts were in January and since then they practice at weekend camps.
Games will be played in Memorial Arena and the South Okanagan Events Centre. The first game features SpartanONE and the Steelers in the SOEC at 8 a.m. on Friday. The Interior Stars play their first game in Memorial Arena Friday at 10:30 a.m. against the X-Treme. They play their second game Friday at 4 p.m. against the Vipers, also at Memorial. On Saturday at 11:15 a.m., the Stars will take on the Steelers at the SOEC, then play their final pool game in Memorial Saturday at 4 p.m. against the Huskie Prospects. Semifinal action begins Sunday at 9 a.m.
The Stars will compete in five to seven tournaments, their first one was March 27 in Osoyoos, where they took bronze playing in an older age group. They will also go to Vancouver, Los Angeles and Winnipeg.
