The Roadrunners Summer Classic ball hockey tournament has been bringing Vancouver Island teams to Nanaimo since 2015. (Dan Marshall/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Dan Marshall

Outdoor Hockey

Sportsmanship the focus of returning Nanaimo ball hockey tournament

Aug 16, 2023 | 10:06 AM

NANAIMO — The annual Roadrunners Summer Classic ball hockey tournament is in the books for another year.

The event ran Saturday Aug. 12 and Sunday, Aug. 13 at Harewood Centennial Park.

Co-organizer Derek Brown said the Roadrunners are a group of friends who love ball hockey and they wanted to create a unique event with a focus on sportsmanship.

“It felt like there weren’t enough tournaments up and down the island. So in 2015 we decided we were going to take a run at starting our own. We tried to put things in place to have as much emphasis on fun and good hard clean hockey as possible.”

The event started as a four on four tournament at Departure Bay Centennial Park but has since changed to a three on three event for the past two years in the covered sports box in Harewood.

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Brown said the event has grown steadily over the years.

“We worked really hard to get 11 teams in that first year. Most teams that have registered in the past have had a good time and spoken favourably so word has spread. This year we had 18 teams which is our best year so far.”

According to Brown a little more than half of the teams involved have players primarily from Nanaimo.

“We’ve got one group from Port Alberni that has shown up pretty much annually. Last year we had a group out of Vancouver, we have at least one team from Victoria, the last couple of years the Cowichan Owlz have put a team in and the Kulleet Bay Winterhawks weren’t there this year but they have been most years.”

This year’s tournament had three skill levels with an A, B and C divisions.

The A and B teams played together in the round robin and then separated for the playoff round while the C division squads only played each other.

The Westview Wolves were the A champions, L-Box won the B division and the Monstars took the C bracket.

No trophies or medals are handed out at the Roadrunners Summer Classic but there is one team award give every year.

“The team that has the best sportsmanship over the course of the tournament wins free entry into next year’s event,” Brown said. “This year the Benson Bashers won Most Sportsmanlike Team. It’s really cool because I think they’ve put a team in the event every single year, and they’ve almost won most sportsmanlike every time but this year they took it home.”

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