Florida Holiday Invitational another rousing success in Estero By Matt Mackinder
main Arena in Estero from Dec. 27-30 and crowned nine division champions. Tournament director Dave Kessel said the event
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wasn’t the biggest in its short history, but was per- haps the best-ran event he’s seen over the 12-year timespan. “It was four days of very competitive hockey and
very few problems from an organizational stand- point,” said Kessel. “One aspect of the tournament that I thought was exceptional was the refereeing. We brought in refs from across the state and each one took control of every game. They let all the teams know what was acceptable and what wasn’t. You like to see that from your refs.” Six Florida-based teams won their legs of the tournament, while the University of Maine won the annual Florida College Classic over the University of Massachusetts. “All the games stayed on time and in many cases, the games actually started early,” said Kessel. “We plan so much for this tournament and a lot of it is done to prevent any problems that may come up. We hear stories about teams that go to other tourna- ments and when they have a game at 7 p.m., once they get to the rink, they’re notified that the game won’t start until 8:30. Here, our games start at least 30 minutes ahead of time if the ice is available.” Kessel said that while he did his fair share of run- ning around at the arena during the four days, he did
he 12th annual Florida Holiday International In- vitational ran smoothly over its four days at Ger-
have the occasion to sit and watch a couple games. “I watched some of the 18UAA and 16UAA games and those were exciting,” Kessel said. “I was helping run the tournament, but I’m also a hockey fan. In those two divisions, there were a number of overtime
FLORIDA HOLIDAY INVITATIONAL WINNERS Squirt A – Jr. Everblades 6, Jr. Lightning 1
Squirt AA – Jr. Everblades 8, Palm Beach Blackhawks 3 Pee Wee A – Palm Beach Blackhawks 6, Florida Eels 1 Pee Wee AA – Miami Toros 4, Jr. Everblades 0
Bantam A – Burlington Bulldogs 3, Lorne Park Ojibwa 1 Bantam AA – Jr. Bulls 6, Palm Beach Blackhawks 4 16U A – Jr. Everblades 3, South Florida Golden Wolves 2 16U AA – Vaughan Panthers 7, Ashburn Extreme 0 18U AA – Jr. Panthers 6, Senators 3
games and made for some really exciting hockey. “Overall, we had some great games and had
teams from all over the country and even Canada.” On the NCAA side, Maine won their fifth Classic.
Cornell University finished third by beating Clarkson University in the third-place game. “Every player who played in
the youth tournament got a ticket to the college games,” said Kessel. “The younger kids that went to the games kind of watched in awe and for the older kids, I think see- ing the college players gave them a sense of reality. They see how much hard work goes into being a Division I college player.” Cornell forward Brian Ferlin, a Jacksonville native, played in his home state for the first time since
leaving for the United States Hockey League (USHL) in 2009. “It was very special for Brian to be back and play
in front of so many friends, family and former team- mates,” said Kessel. “In two years, we’ll have Boston College in here for the tournament and Austin Can- gelosi (an Estero native) will be back in Florida.” This coming December, the 13th annual youth tournament will go down just prior to the calendar changing to 2013 and Maine, Cornell, Ferris State University and the University of Minnesota-Duluth will be the four teams in the college portion. “We’ve already started planning for the next tour- nament and we’re looking at some different things,” Kessel said. “I think you have to keep things fresh and if we can make some tweaks for the better of the tournament, we’ll certainly look at doing that.”
The Florida Jr. Everblades eked out a 3-2 win over the South Florida Golden Wolves to win the 16U A division of the Florida Holiday International Invitational at Germain Arena on Dec. 30. Photo/Tom Fewster
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