Lil Bands hockey tournaments marks 20th year 

Tim Brody - Editor

From “ragtag” beginnings, the Lil Bands Native Youth Hockey Tournament has grown into a major annual event drawing hundreds of participants.
Ziggy Beardy, who has been a member of the tournament committee almost since the tournament began, explained, “It was Stephen (Fiddler) that originally had a vision to have a Native youth (hockey) tournament here in Sioux Lookout. He would go watch games and I guess that’s where he saw the need for Native young people to get to play and I guess he saw a need and he tested the waters. He sent out a notice to see if anybody wanted to play in a tournament and I think he had said there were four teams, ragtag teams of different age groups, different jerseys, that sort of thing, he had a weekend tournament and it was after it was over the kids said, “Oh, is that it? Is there going to be another one?” So, he worked on that and it’s for Native young people to get together and compete and play games and give them something to do other than sitting at home and just to have a goal in mind to prove their skill level and meet other players and it grew from there. Two years ago, we had 74 teams and there were hundreds of kids that came out to play and enjoy themselves and got to meet each other. It’s an outlet for them and something to look forward to every year.” 
The tournament would have been celebrating its 22 year in 2023, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament wasn’t able to be held in 2021 and 2022.
This year’s Lil Bands hockey tournament drew 38 teams from 12 communities – 11 from northern Ontario and one from Manitoba. Beardy said that’s more than 500 young people ranging in ages from five to 17.
This year’s tournament took place at the Dryden Memorial Arena, running from Jan. 31 to Feb. 5.
“We’ve had quite a large number of people attend even though there was only 38 teams,” Beardy said, noting concerns around COVID led to some teams staying home this year.
“Next year we expect a larger number of teams to enter,” he said.
Overall, Beardy shared, “It went really well… it was good to be back.”

LITTLE BANDS NATIVE YOUTH HOCKEY TOURNAMENT RESULTS

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

A Side Midget Champions – Round Lake Midgets defeated Mishkeegogamang 4 – 3
A Side Bantam Champions – Muskrat Dam Midgets defeated Mishkeegogamang 7 – 2
A Side Sr Girls Champions – Round Lake defeated Deer Lake 8 – 5
A Side Peewee Champions – Mishkeegogamang defeated Obish (Lac Seul) 4 – 0
A Side Atom Champions – Obish (Lac Seul) defeated Deer Lake 10 – 0
A Side Jr Girls Champions – Deer Lake defeated Garden Hill 6 – 4
A Side Novice Champions – Obish (Lac Seul) defeated Deer Lake 10 – 0
B Side Midget Champions – Sandy Lake defeated Nibinamik 8 – 2
B Side Bantam Champions – Slate Falls defeated Sandy Lake 5 – 2
B Side Sr Girls Champions – Sandy Lake defeated Garden Hill 6 – 5
B Side Peewee Champions – Sandy Lake defeated Slate Falls 4 – 1
B Side Atom Champions – Pikangikum defeated Sachigo Lake 9 - 4
C Side Peewee Champions – Garden Hill defeated Round Lake 10 - 9
C Side Midget Champions – Garden Hill defeated Round Lake 9 - 3