The 31st annual Jr. Native Hockey Tournament in Merritt was another roaring success, both in terms of attendance and the performance of local athletes.

Tournament organizer Bill Bose said the event continues to grow in popularity as the years go on, and the caliber of play is rising higher and higher every year.

“The caliber of the top end players was amazing, right from the little guys up to the big guys there are some very talented native players coming up the system,” he said.

In the peewee division, the Upper Nicola Colts team took home top honours.

The Colts were third in the atom division, while the Nicola Valley Warriors finished second in bantam. Another local team, the Nlakapamux Chiefs, were third in the tournament’s midget category.

A number of local athletes were also named to tournament all-star teams: Evan Kashuba (atom), Brayden McRae and Tayton Stewart (peewee), Robert Sterling (bantam) and Marco Camastro (midget).

Games were run out of the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena and the Shulus Arena from March 23 to 25. Both arenas were packed all weekend long with spectators, said Bose.

“I believe if we can mesh our dates with other areas — there’s twice as big of one as ours this weekend in Prince George, and there is a real big one in Alberta almost the same time as we were on — some of those teams wanted to come over here,” said Bose.

Meanwhile, the local teams performances is encouraging to Bose, who said that there is still room for Nicola Valley players to improve.

“It was good. We can be better, but we’re trying and that’s the main thing,” he said.

Bose credited the organizing committee for the success of the tournament, noting that he was doing his best to stay out of the spotlight over the three day event.

All photos courtesy of Bill Bose.

Local squads were well represented at the tournament, with at least one team in every division.