Alaskan and N.W.T. teams in for broomball Northern Cup

The first ever Northern Cup of broomball will be held at Takhini Arena starting this afternoon.

The first ever Northern Cup of broomball will be held at Takhini Arena starting this afternoon.

“We’ve named it the Northern Cup Championships to get that started,” said Scott Smith from the Yukon Broomball Association. “This is the first time for visiting teams coming to town from Outside the Yukon.”

The tournament is also called the Bob Parks Memorial Championships, and has been held as an annual event, but has only included Whitehorse teams.

“We honour Bob because he is a long time player and supporter,” said Smith. The club still plans to honour Park at the tournament.

Last year teams from Homer, Alaska were interested in coming to Whitehorse for a broomball tournament, but the idea never got off the ground.

“It was an idea to get these people to come and have some growth in our league,” said Smith.

This year it is finally happening, with teams from Anchorage and Yellowknife also attending.

“There’s lots of local support for it,” said Smith. He says this will be the first of a bi-annual event.

“The idea is for Yellowknife to host it in two year’s time,” said Smith.

The tournament will be non-contact, co-ed.

The out of town teams attending are Duggan’s Pub from Homer, Big City Ballers from Anchorage and the Yellowknife Ravens and the Swamp Donkeys from the Northwest Territories.

The Yukon teams participating are Flipper’s Pub, Roadhouse, Arctic Response, Capital Towing and the Nacho Nyak Dun first nations team from Mayo.

The tournament starts at 7 p.m. this evening at Takhini arena with Nacho Nyak Dun taking on the Roadhouse Pub and continues with the last game kicking off at 10:20 p.m.

On Saturday the action continues starting at 9 a.m.at Takhini Arena and the Canada Games Centre.

On Sunday the finals will begin at 10 a.m. at Takhini.

There will be a beer garden at the mezzanine at Takhini arena run by the worlds travel broomball players, including Smith.

The Yukon Broomball Association is looking forward to an exciting season next year, as the team plans to attend the Worlds International Broomball Tournament in Inssbruck, Austria.

The association decided to try to attend after they had success at last year’s Worlds Internationals in Burnaby, B.C.

Broomball in Whitehorse is a fun league played in their covered rink in Takhini North.

Smith says it is a co-ed league and anyone is welcome to get involved after the tournament this weekend.

“We’re promoting a fun atmosphere, however there is a trophy in the end,” he said.

There are seven teams in the Whitehorse league, and another may get started after the Northern Cup.

“It’s a low cost alternative to any other sport,” said Smith.

Anyone interested in getting involved playing broomball should stop by the tournament this weekend,  email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or call Yukon Broomball Association president Milford Allain at 335-0534.

The Yukon Broomball Association keeps updated records and information on their website at http://www.yukonbroomball.com