A coach with Estevan connections helped lead the Trinity Western University Spartans men's hockey team on a goodwill tour of China over the New Year's holidays.
Barret Kropf, head coach of the Spartans, said the hockey team has done several goodwill trips since he joined the club in 2013 as a way to give the players a chance to expand their world view, see the game in other cultures around the world and show them what sort of opportunities may be available to them both for work and for professional hockey once they graduate.
Kropf said the team was able to play seven games over their Dec. 28 to Jan. 9 trip that saw the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) squad make stops in Chengde, Tianjin and Beijing. He said this was the first time they had travelled to that area, but with Beijing set to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the effort they're putting into developing the sport of hockey in China it was felt the time was right to head over there and show off their school.
“Trinity Western has had a partnership education-wise in China for the last 25 years, so we were a part of that celebration with a number of (other) universities over there,” said Kropf, who grew up in Estevan and played all of his minor hockey here. “At the same time we were able to showcase the game, the Canadian style of the game, and that was a great experience for ourselves and for the sport of hockey to continue to get eyeballs onto it.”
Four of the Spartans games were played as part of a winter sports festival in Chengde that featured about 50 teams from Europe and Asia competing in three sporting events including ice hockey, inline hockey and bandy, which is an 11-on-11 variation of ice hockey played on a soccer-sized ice surface and uses a ball instead of a puck. Hockey and culture combined during the four ice hockey matches as the games took place on an outdoor rink in front of the emperor's summer palace.
“It's a 600-year-old palace that has a man-made private lake that freezes in the winter, so they've created a couple of outdoor rinks for the games to take place,” said Kropf. “It was a really surreal moment where you're playing in this historical facility outdoors against a team from Russia in the middle of China. So, some of those things our guys are never going to forget. (It was) a great cultural experience and for the Chinese people to be able to see the sport played at a high level I think drew lots of interest towards the sport.”
After Kropf graduated from minor hockey in the late 1980s, he played in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) with the Estevan Bruins and the Melfort Mustangs. He said the team, which is based out of Langley, B.C. and sits second in the BCIHL with a record of 11-4-0-1, has a few former SJHL players on their roster and they're always on the lookout for new recruits.
“It's the next step,” he said. “Outside of the Canucks here in the lower mainland, it's some of the best hockey you're going to see and sort of the best kept secret. Every time someone new comes to the arena they're really impressed with the level of play and competitiveness.”
