The accolades and success continue to roll in for the South Okanagan Minor Hockey Association (SOMHA).
After a historic season on the ice – where the Peewee, Bantam and Midget representative teams all captured regular season titles as well as the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association (OMAHA) championship qualifying them to compete in provincials – the success continued this past weekend.
During the annual general meeting of BC Hockey at the beautiful Sun Peaks Conference Centre, it was announced that the SOMHA had been selected as the Minor Hockey Association of the Year.
That’s an incredible honour considering tens of thousands of kids play minor hockey across this great province and there are literally dozens and dozens of minor hockey associations spread across British Columbia.
SOMHA past president Dean Maynard and vice president Jason Bartsch made the special trip to Sun Peaks to pick up the prestigious award.
This award will most definitely be shared by every single minor hockey player who played in the SOMHA this past season as well as and every coach, trainer, manager and parent.
As Bartsch stated so eloquently during his acceptance speech, the SOMHA was forged out of a collaborative effort of two minor hockey associations in Oliver and Osoyoos more than 30 years ago.
The wonderful success of the Peewee, Bantam and Midget Rep teams was not the only reason everyone affiliated with the SOMHA should be so proud.
As Bartsch again pointed out, the first-ever all-girls team was established at the novice level and the SOMHA is truly excited about the expansion and success of girls hockey at the local and regional level.
The SOMHA is also rightly proud of the fact that local kids from Osoyoos are not shut out from playing Canada’s game due to financial concerns.
The SOMHA has always taken pride in the fact it’s a grassroots organization and every effort is made to make minor hockey affordable to all families with young children.
Whatever the SOMHA has been doing, it’s most certainly working as there has been an 11 per cent increase in registrations over the past two years at the same time many minor hockey associations across B.C. and Canada are having to deal with dwindling numbers.
The SOMHA executive has also made it a priority to emphasize fair play, sportsmanship and discipline to its players at all levels and this won’t be changing any time soon, said Bartsch.
Winning local and regional championships is something to be proud of and most young Canadian hockey players will always give an honest effort when they hit the ice.
But winning with a combination of talent, dignity, sportsmanship and camaraderie is equally as important to the good people involved in the SOMHA.
Being honoured as the best minor hockey association in the entire province has obviously been well earned and we applaud the entire executive for doing an outstanding job this past season.
The game of hockey will always be important to Canadians and it’s nice to know that a small group of dedicated and committed individuals who chose to live in small towns in southern B.C. can attain such wonderful success.
It has been a remarkable past few months of success for the SOMHA and there’s little doubt that success is going to continue considering the solid group of committed people in charge of this organization.
Kudos to everyone involved on a truly remarkable achievement.
