Primed for its third season, the Greenstone High School Hockey League is bigger than ever before.
Seven teams are in the GHSHL this season. New to the league is Montreal Lake, which joins Creighton Community School, Hapnot Collegiate, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and Deschambault Lake.
Cranberry Portage’s Frontier Collegiate will also ice a team this year, and more teams may join the league later in the season.
“We’re still looking at a 18-game schedule for each team,” said league commissioner Dan Reagan. “We play Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons. We play up to three or four games every Sunday at the Sportex.”
Players range from 14 to 18 years old and use modified rules. Bodychecking and slapshots above the knee are not permitted.
“We can have the smaller, younger kids easily keep up and not be intimidated,” said Reagan. “We don’t want intimidation, we want it to be fun for everybody.”
Reagan says that the league attracts players of all experience levels.
Teams in the GHSHL league are co-ed, and several feature both male and female players.
The league has allowed some players who had stopped playing organized hockey to once again hit the ice.
“Some had quit hockey at peewee and in some of the communities, there are kids who had never played on an organized team,” Reagan said. “We have kids who, honestly, have never played before.”
While some teams in the league are affiliated with local minor hockey programs, most, including Frontier and Deschambault Lake, are sponsored by local high schools.
The sponsorship means schools look after transportation and equipment, avoiding costs that could be prohibitive for some players.
The GHSHL functions as a bantam and midget house league for most players. Local midget programs have dwindled due to low interest in recent years.
“Midget hockey has been dead for years here and essentially, this is midget hockey,” said Reagan. “It’s really a bantam-midget recreational house league. The best players leave for regional teams, but for most kids after age 14, there hasn’t been any hockey for them. This is really meant to help fill that void.”
