Over 240 Minor Hockey League players have come to Steinbach this weekend for the U11 tournament. 

There are 24 teams participating in the tournament. Three of the teams are from the Steinbach area, but that still leaves 21 more teams coming in for the weekend. 

Kevin Geisheimer, lead of the tournament committee, says he expects a lot of siblings, parents, and grandparents to come out and watch. 

“So it's a really cool opportunity for Steinbach to kind of showcase who we are, and obviously it's kind of a bit of a boost too for all the local restaurants and businesses in the community.” 

He’s excited about all the energy inside the building and seeing smiles on kids’ faces. 

“I know that each team gets to play three games, and then there's a chance to win a medal at the end, and we have player of the game awards going out.” 

He notes there are also some silent auctions going on.  

“So if you're a sucker for a silent auction, we've got lots of good prizes. Even if you're not a part of the tournament, you can swing by and buy some tickets.”  

Hosting 24 teams and trying to make the best experience possible for all the kids is no easy task. 

When asked what it takes to plan a tournament, Geisheimer says he’s still learning, but it helps that he’s not alone. 

"It's maybe a little bit more complicated than I initially thought, and I'm working with Steinbach Minor Hockey, and so we have a bunch of parents that are our tournament committee.” 

There are two parents from each team, the A division team, B division team, and C division team, that make up the tournament committee.  

From there, they recruit parents on each team to volunteer. Parents have upwards of three to five shifts that they need to volunteer for during this weekend. 

Thanks to all of the parents helping out, Geisheimer expects they can make this weekend run smoothly. 

Parents will be doing 50/50 ticket selling, manning the time clock, music for the games, helping at the kiosk, and doing the official scorekeeping. 

“All the parents are very active this weekend and making this come together for the kids, so there's a lot of volunteer hours put in to make it all come together.” 

 

with files from Carly Koop