Mick Hatten|SCTimes
SARTELL— The Granite City Pond Hockey Championships is getting a new name —and moving to a golf course.
The event, which began in 2012 at Lake George, will be moving to Blackberry Ridge Golf Club in Sartell and is being renamed the Granite City Outdoor Hockey Festival. It's set for Feb. 1-3.
The plan is to have three 50-foot-wide-by-100-foot-long pond hockey rinks on the driving range at the club. The goal is to have 25 youth teams and 10 adult teams and raise $40,000 for area youth hockey teams in St. Cloud, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, River Lakes, Litchfield, Hutchinson and Princeton.
Each team will be guaranteed three games with a possibility of up to five games.
The pond hockey tournament was last held in 2017 at Lake George in St. Cloud. The tournament took last year off because Hockey Day Minnesota was held on and around Lake George.
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Moving
So how did this move come about?
"Last year, I was looking at different things regarding pond hockey and I came across that Blackberry Ridge had set up a rink and done a little hockey thing," said Gary Hines, one of the organizers of the tournament. "I was wondering if we could expand this and how it would be received and, logistically, how we could do it."
Hines was looking to put together some ads for the business he owns (Hockey Zone) and for the pond hockey tournament with Mike Kampa of Leighton Broadcasting. He started talking about his idea andKampa had a contact with Blackberry Ridge Director of Sales & Marketing Sonja Babich.
Babich, who also is in charge of event planning for Blackberry Ridge,had been thinking about the same thing. Her husband, Chris, and brother-in-law, Carl, had both played in the last Granite City Pond Hockey Championships.
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"Whenever I see an event, I think, 'Can I bring this to Blackberry?'" Babich said. "The stars aligned.
"That led to the little rink getting started last year and then it grew into a bigger idea for a bigger event that is a perfect fit for us."
The "little rink" was a 60-by-60-foot rink that Blackberry Ridge set up on the driving range last winter with the help of sponsors Bernick's, Holland and Frank Employee Benefits, Inc.and Hyytinen-Trobec Family Dental.
Super Bowl weekend
The pond hockey tournament has typically been held in late January, a time typically not huge for events at Blackberry.
In July, Hines and Babich began having talks about moving the event to Blackberry Ridge, which has Grill 19, a bar and grill; a clubhouse that hosts weddings; and a balcony that overlooks the course.
"The more we got together and talked about this, the more it was like, 'Wow, this has a lot of potential,'" Hines said. "There's a space to do all these different things that can be done. I don't think too many people are going to be golfing in February."
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Hines and Justin Schultz, the Hockey Zone general manager and co-organizer of the hockey tournament, have always viewed the tournament morphing into a festival. The hope is to have a cross-country ski race and snowshoeing events along with the pond hockey style tournament —minus the pond.
"We think that they have the space and facilities that are going to allow that to happen easier," Hines said. "The priority is still to try to raise money to give back to youth organizations."
With the clubhouse as part of the event, the organizers think that could allowpeople to stay at the event longer and allow for growth.
"Being out here gives us leverage to get more teams involved and signed up because now we have an indoor facility where fans, parents and players can watch," Schultz said. "Before, we weren't able to capitalize on people sticking around to make it an event.
"It was cold and you couldn't see it from the tent, so people would leave. People can come out (to Blackberry Ridge) and watch and see how great the overall event is and not just their game."
The plan includes having the pond hockey tournament Feb. 1-3. If that weekend rings a bell, that's because the NFL's Super Bowl will be on Feb. 3. That is by design.
"We want to have all of the hockey wrapped up by 4 o'clock on Sunday at the latest and then have a Super Bowl viewing party with food specials available," Hines said.
"We want the people who come out here to have a great time and be wowed and just enjoy being in the outdoors," Babich said.
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Boot hockey league
Blackberry Ridge plans on putting up boards for the rinks on the driving range in November, with the ice likely being put in during December.
"We're thinking that we can have a boot hockey league that starts in January," Babich said.
If there is snow, Babich said Blackberry Ridge will look to have trails groomed for cross- country skiing with the help of the City of Sartell. The Sartell Fire Department will donate time to flood the rinks, Babich said.
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The rinks will be smaller than they were on Lake George when they were 65-by-124 feet. But Hines said that if enough teams sign up, they could flood another three rinks to accommodate the teams.
On top of running the Hockey Zone, Hines and Schultz run the Minnesota Youth Foundation, the nonprofit organization that puts together the event. Working with Blackberry Ridge has given the event a jolt, according to the pair.
"We've added more people to this board that have brought a lot of excitement," Schultz said. "It's easier to get more excited sooner and get the word out in a bigger way.
"(Blackberry Ridge and board members) have a bigger network of people that we don't have. Maybe we can bring more people to something that have never been a part of it."
There are sponsorships for the event at the $500, $1,000, $3,000 and $5,000 levels. More information and team sign-ups will begin in October atwww.gcpondhockey.com.
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Follow Mick Hatten onTwitter,Instagram@MickHatten and atFacebook.com/sctimesmick. Reach him by phone at 259-3621, by email at mhatten@stcloudtimes.com.
