Many of Canada’s top young broomball players will be in Estevan from March 28 to 31 for the national juvenile men’s and women’s championships.
Event spokesperson Shelley Schroeder said 16 teams will be entered, with eight male teams and eight female teams. Games will take place at Affinity Place and the Civic Auditorium.
A round-robin will open the tournament, with the first contests beginning at 8 a.m. on March 28, and continuing throughout the day. The opening ceremonies are scheduled for that night at Affinity Place at 7 p.m.
Games will resume at 9 a.m. the following morning, and the final game that day will be at 6:15 p.m. The round-robin will wrap up on March 30, with the first game at 7 a.m. and the final round-robin game at 10:15 a.m.
The first round of the playoffs will begin at 1:30 p.m. Awards will be handed out at a banquet at 7 p.m. at the Estevan Comprehensive School.
Medal round games will be on March 31. The women’s gold medal game will be at 11:30 a.m. at Affinity Place, and the men’s gold medal game is scheduled for 12:40 p.m., also at Affinity Place.
The medal ceremony is slated for 2 p.m.
Games are 65 minutes long.
The Estevan Murray GM Raiders will be the host team on the men’s side. They placed third out of five teams at provincials, and they picked up nine players from Odessa, who also competed at provincials.
Schroeder expects the local entry will be competitive.
“They’re quite excited,” said Schroeder. “They’re practicing three times a week. They’re doing dryland.”
The Raiders will open the tournament with a game against the Manitoba all-stars at 10:10 a.m. on March 28 at the Civic Auditorium. Their next game will be at 8:30 p.m. that night against the defending national champions, the Valley Gamblers, at Affinity Place.
Two more games will follow on March 29 at Affinity Place: a 9 a.m. game against Ontario’s Kilsyth Flyers, and a 3 p.m. game against the Quebec Blitz.
Estevan will wrap up the round-robin with a game against the Quebec Frost at 9:10 a.m. on March 30.
The Bruno Axemen will be the other Saskatchewan men’s team at nationals.
On the women’s side, the Odessa Flames have been designated as the home team, while the Debden Roadrunners will be the other Saskatchewan squad.
A Manitoba all-stars squad will also be entered on both the male and female divisions, and there will be four teams from Quebec and six more from Ontario.
“They take it quite seriously,” said Schroeder. “It’s going to be very interesting to watch to see where we’re at in comparison to them.”
Schroeder expects the tournament will be an eye-opener for a lot of people, but it should be fabulous entertainment.
Volunteers are still needed for the event, particularly with scorekeeping and timekeeping in both arenas. Schroeder recognizes it’s tough for people to commit their time during the day, but she hopes anyone with an hour or two to spare will help out.
