Achi news desk-
With the end of any hockey season in Nova Scotia comes the SEDMHA tournament, but this year, a team from across the Atlantic also hits the ice.
Comprised of players from multiple teams across the Republic of Ireland, the Saints have come to Nova Scotia for a chance to compete on Canadian turf.
“As much as possible, we try to bring our younger teams to places like Canada and we try to give them the hockey experience here,” Saints head coach Paul Cummins said in an interview on Thursday.
“It’s amazing, it’s a dream come true to be here, everything, hockey here is just great, and everyone here is so nice to you,” said one of the Saints players. “At home I play a lot of inline hockey, so this is my first time playing ice hockey properly, I have my first ice hockey game tonight so it will be interesting.”
The Saints are organized by the Irish Ice Hockey Association, which works to make ice hockey more accessible to children in Ireland.
“We’re over here promoting hockey in Ireland, we’re trying to get things going. We have a good junior program despite the lack of rink facilities,” Cummins said.
Cummins says there is no ice rink within the Republic of Ireland, and the nearest rink is in Belfast, UK, so some players will travel hours to train.
“Some of these kids have a seven-hour round trip just to train for an hour and a half,” Cummins said.
With many children without access to a rink, Cummins says it can take some time to get used to ice hockey.
“Generally, it takes us a game or two to try to get our ice legs back under us, and we’ve got some coaches, as you can see, a lot of Canadian coaches and local coaches up here helping us,” he said. .
“In the last two days we’ve had so much ice time, we’ve had more ice time in the last two days than the last six months back home, so the kids have improved a lot. “
Giving children the opportunity to experience Canada is an experience that Cummins says will live with them for the rest of their lives.
“For them, it’s a dream; it’s memories for a lifetime,” he said.
With files from Mike Lamb on CTV.
