The new Hockey Super League is recruiting several clubs from the province including two from Airdrie. 

The Airdrie Stars and Puur Athletics announced recently they were joining the new league which is set to begin in September.

Players participate at the recent ID Skate for Puur Athletics (Photo Courtesy: Tod Pedersen)

The Stars will field one team in the 2006 Minor/2007 Major Division while Puur has one 2008 Major Team.

Tod Pedersen, Co-Owner of Puur Athletics shares one of the big reasons they are joining the Super League.

“We found that Minor Hockey had some shortcomings. Sadly, all revolve around the fact that there’s no ice time, there’s no arenas. As the population grows in Airdrie the ice time just gets less and less and less. Minor Hockey, they do the best that they can but there’s just a shortage of ice and with that, the kids don’t get on the ice, they don’t get better.”

The Hockey Super League is not affiliated with Hockey Canada or Hockey Alberta and both Pedersen and Jonah Cimolini, President of the Airdrie Stars say they wanted to have a hockey program that wasn’t at the mercy of a Minor Hockey Association.

Cimolini and Pedersen said the Airdrie Minor Hockey Association is a very well built system, but the Super League provided options that suited their clubs and families.

“This is our program and we can create it how we feel it’s best for our group,” says Cimolini, “We’ve involved more ice time. We’ve dedicated a day a week of off ice development, [for] life in general and not just high-performance athletics.”

Both clubs have heard the rumblings in the hockey community saying that this league is designed for players who only want a winning record and a clear shot at the NHL.

Pedersen was quick to clear the air on that rumour, saying that winning is important but it’s more than that.

“The concept that when you go to a tournament and you lose every game at the tournament and you still get a medal, that just doesn’t work for me. It’s ok to understand and comprehend that other kids played better than you, that’s competition. It’s how the kids mentally deal with the fact that they can’t win every game. This league, is it going to breed winners? Yeah; that doesn’t mean that you win every game.”

The Super League will also feature a more open schedule leaving more time for training, off ice development and family time.

“What they’ve done is they’ve created a league tournament so that all games are played on one weekend a month,” says Cimiolini, “That leaves three weekends open for actual family time, rather than traveling all over Central and Southern Alberta. For one game, it takes up a whole day, a tank of gas and potentially a hotel room.”

Cimolini says that part of their development will include meeting with members of the Paralympic Sledge Hockey team and Liasion officers with the Calgary Police.

While it’s too early to say whether the league will succeed after the first year, the clubs are just getting ready to hit the ice.

“We’re excited that the kids are going to have the training that they can really use,” says Pedersen, “It’s all about development. Yes, we have showcases but you have one or sometimes two weekends in a month where you play hockey and the rest of the time it’s learning and developing.”

You can see more on the Hockey Super League at their official website.

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