Sports

Orangeville Tigers host annual Sweetheart Tournament

February 2, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Orangeville Girls Hockey Association (Orangeville Tigers) hosted its annual Sweetheart Tournament on Jan. 27–29, at various venues in Orangeville, including Tony Rose and the Alder Street arena.

To accommodate all the games, ice time was also scheduled at Teen Ranch, Hillsburgh, and Grand Valley.

Over 70 teams took part in the girls’ tournament. This included rep teams from U9 up to U18 and a couple of senior divisions.

The tournament also features a skills competition at the Alder Street Red Rink. This gives players the opportunity to showcase their skills and go up against other players to see who comes out on top.

“Orangeville Girls Hockey Association is thrilled [to] be back hosting the 43rd Sweetheart Tournament,” said Marie Darch-Hearder, communications coordinator. “We are proud to welcome over 70 competitive and Development Stream teams from across our region and teams travelling from Timmins and Laval-Montreal. Orangeville Tigers has seven teams entered in the tournament. We are excited to have skills competitions as part of our tournament again this year. Players enjoy competing in the relay and shoot-out and the seats are full of fans cheering them on.”

All skills competitions took place at the Alder Recreation Centre Red rink.

The Sweetheart Tournament was founded in 1978 and is named after the original girls’ hockey league in Orangeville in honour of Sherri Cronin, who died in 1976. Sherri was the first Sweetheart to register. Her dad, Jim Cronin, was one of the first coaches and president of the OGHA.

Tournament season for the Tigers will continue this year with the Winter Classic, which will be held on Feb. 3 to 5, with 58 house league teams entered.

In March, the Tigers will host the March Madness Jamboree for players in U7 and U9 divisions.

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