A Great Game made better by a Great Moment

I looked around the room at the PCAHA AGM as we listened to the narrative shared before a special award was announced for a Midget C team from Abottsford BC. Grown men wiped tears from their eyes as did I.

The narrator read

‘In the finals the PCAHA Midget ‘C’ division the Abottsford Midget ‘C’ team had defeated the Langley Midget ‘C’ team to win the championship. At one end of the ice sticks and gloves were strewn in celebration of a championship, while at the other end one team took the loss in an unusually tough manner with most of the kids driven to tears at a profound loss. But it wasn’t just the loss of the game, it was the thought of losing a game dedicated to the memory of a teammate who died during the season.

This fact was relayed to the Abottsford captain during the traditional handshake, whereupon the Abottsford captain came back to his dressing room and he and his teammates decided that they would instead give the championship trophy to Langley. With his team behind him, and a knock at the door, the assembled Abottsford team gave their trophy and championship to Langley’

Three boys and their coaches from the Abottsord team accepted a special award from the PCAHA for this selfless act – for taking a great game and making it even better.

The audience gave a standing ovation……..many with tears in their eyes.

Arrest made in murder of Hockey Mom

All of us in the minor hockey community were horrified when a hockey mom from Surrey was killed outside the local Surrey arena as she was picking up her son after he refereed a game.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/man-charged-in-hockey-mom-death-to-appear-in-bc-court/article18840621/#dashboard/follows/

Yesterday, at the PCAHA annual general meeting we held a moment of silence for the people of the hockey community who we lost or were taken from us in the past year. Julie Paskall was mentioned by name. Little did we know that a prime suspect in the case had been arrested.