The phenomenon called Kempenfelt Cup

One of the new holiday school traditions that I have been indoctrinated into as a result of transferring to Barrie North is the phenomenon called Kempenfelt Cup, a one-day high school hockey tournament that is played at the Sadlon Centre (formerly the Barrie Nolson Centre). The idea behind the KCup is to celebrate high school hockey, increase school spirit and donate a tidy sum of much-needed cash to Barrie's Christmas Cheer.

The KCup was one of a few things we did not participate in at Barrie Central because we didn't have high school hockey, at least not while I taught there. I know that at times in the past, the Central Redskins would battle all comers at the famed Dunlop Arena, the place that many a Barrie old-timer professed to be the "BEST ICE" in Barrie, which of course WAS right beside Central. One of the arguments that I always heard for NOT having hockey at Central was the staff felt that the students were playing enough hockey outside of school and didn't need to add it to the list of things they were doing outside the class room. Since I'm not a hockey guy, I never really missed it.

Which leads me back to the KCup. I volunteered at my last one recently, at least as a teacher. Although I already pointed out that I'm not a hockey guy, I'm still VERY much Canadian and love a good showing of our national pastime as much as any other Canuk. For those who have never been blessed with attending, the deal is that 5 schools enter a Boys' and a Girls' side, sell tickets + T-shirts to their student body, practice a bunch of pep-rally style cheers and dances, then "skip" a perfectly good school day in support of their school's team. The school mascots are there, the community gets involved by helping to subsidize costs, and in the end, Barrie's Christmas Cheer wins big.

The quality of hockey is pretty good with each school having a cadre of "A", "AA" or even "AAA" quality players to support the high school trained ones and are guided by some pretty passionate and knowledgable teacher-coaches. This year's bragging rights became the right of Eastview's Girls and Bear Creek's Boys. Barrie North was well represented but came up a little short. The girls lost their opening game but then won their second in an upset to qualify for the championship vs perennial powerhouse Eastview. Despite a brilliant effort by our Viking goalie, it was clear that Eastview had a deeper bench, securing the 2019 KCup 2-0. The boys fell on some hard luck losing both of their prelim games in shootouts. I quite enjoyed watching the boys since a few of them are in my HPE classes. In the Boys' championship, Bear Creek bested Innisdale 3-1.

Many of you know that I fancy myself as an amateur shutterbug and today was a great opportunity for some action snaps. One of the great challenges with shooting the action at any hockey arena is lighting, coupled with shooting through the plexiglass. Perhaps it was my grey-coloured beard or maybe a sense of pity, but I was able to quietly sneak into the little booth between the team benches and snap to my heart's content without managing the plexiglass. You can view the action by clicking KCup photos 2019 and going to my Central/North Athletics photo sharing site. I always enjoy sharing my craft with the students and I'm sure that this latest effort will bring some smiles once again.

Many thanks to the businesses that support KCUP. Barrie is continually hit for support and I'm never disappointed by the generosity show by the local business owners. I can't recall all of them, but Georgian College, Lakehead University, and Georgian International were the headliners.