The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Five teams, five goalies, 70 players
Registration is over, the draft happened and Big Mine Ice Arena is good to go: it’s time for another season of town league hockey.
Seventy players signed up for the 2010 season, including nine women and five full-time goalies, and were drafted onto five teams sponsored by the Bacchanale, the Last Steep, the Brick Oven, Mikey’s Pizza and last year’s champs, the Eldo.
It’s a whole new league this year though as all the players were mixed up into a pool and redistributed via a draft on December 20.
Program director for the town of Crested Butte Lauren Alkire was on hand to oversee the draft at the Eldo with captains from all five teams there to divide up the talent pool in a fair and reasonable fashion.
For the past two years town league players bemoaned the Eldo’s roster, claiming it was stacked. Eldo captain Paul O’Connor was at the draft this year and believes the teams are as even as they possibly could be.
“It was a fair draft, well run and a great way to start the season,” says O’Connor. “There’s no more whining—it’s game on.”
Alkire concurs, adding, “Everyone there was happy.”
In addition, Alkire reports that there are five “official” goalies signed up, so every team has its own net minder.
Each team will play all of the other teams twice, for a total of eight games.
The first puck of the 2010 season will drop on Tuesday, January 5 at 7 p.m. as the Eldo takes on Mikey’s Pizza. All games will be played on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 and 8:45 p.m. at Big Mine Ice Arena. The regular season will conclude on Thursday, February 4, at which point the playoff tournament will begin.
“Depending on the weather we may have to go to single elimination but we’re hoping for double elimination-style tournament in the playoffs,” says Alkire.
For all of you hockey fans, there is no greater live, local sports spectacle than Crested Butte adult town league hockey. Dress warm, bring your favorite intoxicant, or non-intoxicant, and catch town league hockey.
