Kahnawake Day a big draw at the ’plex

Any day with a home game is a good day for the Kahnawake Minor Hockey Association (KMHA).

But 15 of them? That’s something special, and that’s what December 14’s Kahnawake Day at the Kahnawake Sports Complex was for everyone who packed the arena for a full day of hockey.

“It went really well, and we received positive feedback on how nice it was to see so many games and that everyone got to watch everyone play,” said Brianne Alfred, president of the KMHA.

Alfred said that giving the opportunity to players to see how teams in other age groups played was a large factor in deciding to hold Kahnawake Day last Saturday.

“I thought it would be a great idea to have all teams play at home, so the younger teams get a chance to watch the older teams,” said Alfred. “The same goes for families, it was a chance for everyone to hangout and watch a day’s worth of hockey, instead of running from arena to arena, where some may have to miss one sibling’s game to go to the other.”

Almost all of the teams participated in Kahnawake Day. Only the U21 team, which had a game scheduled in Ile-Bizard, and the U11B Mohawks, who were in a tournament, did not play at the Sports Complex on Saturday.

Lou Ann Stacey, director of the U15 team and manager of the U13C team, was present for five games on Saturday, and she said the arena was chock full of enthused parents, fans, and kids.

“It was packed inside. It was a busy day, especially with a lot of kids that were playing and hustling around. It was really good. You could feel that good energy,” said Stacey.

An important part of Kahnawake Day was the participation of U7 and U9 teams from Akwesasne, who came for a “Fun Day” with Kahnawake teams.

“I reached out to Akwesasne early on, before the season kicked off, and asked if their U7 teams would like to come down for “Fun Day” as they hosted us last year,” said Alfred.

“This year we also made arrangements to have their U9 team to include our U9 teams.”

Storm Adams, U7 coach and president of the Akwesasne Minor Hockey Association, said that they were happy to accept the invitation, and everyone had a lot of fun.

“Our group had a blast. Everything went great,” said Adams. “And it seems like everybody from the Kahnawake community and their teams were happy as well.”

Stacey, who has a niece on a U7 Mohawks team, said that the kids from town had a blast, too.

“She was just so happy and so excited to get to play a game. Usually, in U7, you’re not playing games, it’s a lot of training,” said Stacey.

Adams said that U7 in Akwesasne works similarly, and that these “Fun Days” serve as a nice and easy introduction to playing against other teams instead of just doing drills or practicing.

The Akwesasne minor hockey president said that because of the familiarity many in each community have with the other, and how much fun each game day has been, they are looking at making “Fun Days” a regular occurrence going forward.

“Everybody here loves going to Kahnawake, and then everybody there likes coming to see us here. I’d love to make it an annual thing, where we have both of our groups play either here or there, depending on what is more efficient,” said Adams.

As for Kahnawake Day itself, Alfred said the event is surely to become an annual fixture in Kahnawake as well.

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