Even with snow coming, Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship slated for outdoors after two years inside
Published: 02-04-2025 3:47 PM
Modified: 02-04-2025 4:31 PM |
Spanning three days, six ice rinks, and eight divisions, the 14th annual 1883 Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship and Winter Festival will bring together hockey players from around the state this weekend for several days of competition and celebration. Even with snow in the forecast on Thursday and Sunday, Chris Brown, founder of the 1883 Black Ice Hockey Association, says the games will go on.
“We usually build the rinks on Thursday,” Brown said. “We have some youth games on Thursday night we may have to postpone, unfortunately. We’ll probably end up staging a lot of the rink so that the minute the pond is free of snow Thursday evening, we can put everything together and get on the ice in time for the first game on Friday.”
This will be the first year the tournament has been held outside since 2022. The event, which began in 2001, commemorates the first organized ice hockey game in the U.S., held in 1883 at the St. Paul School in Concord. Every year, the tournament hosts approximately 95 teams and 700 hockey players for one of the biggest hockey happenings of the winter season. The tournament, based at White Park in Concord, includes games, bonfires, fireworks, music, food trucks and ice sculptures. This year’s championship will take place Feb. 7-9.
“The true enjoyment of the event being held at White Park makes you realize the fun and why we do this, to see people’s enjoyment, see people’s connection, to have that experience. It’s something you can’t replicate when you try to do it inside,” Brown said.
He anticipates most of the weekend continuing as planned, with adjustments made for the weather as needed. Even the fireworks should still happen, snow or shine, Brown said.
“Once everything’s set up, if we needed to broom the rinks off to put them in a usable fashion, we could do that pretty quickly,” he said.
The rinks are constructed of boards and planks that have been part of all fourteen years of the tournament. Most of the rinks will be on the White Park pond, with two others built behind the pond on the field for the youth games on Saturday.
The nonprofit association seeks to promote pond hockey and other ice skating and recreational activities while also aiming to commemorate the history of hockey in Concord and, through local sponsorships, support community projects, such as rebuilding the skate house at White Park.
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“We look forward to it every year,” Brown said. “It’s a level of community that you don’t get a chance to see often. It’s like an Old Home Day, catching up with your neighbors that have been hibernating for the winter here and being able to come out for a nice community event like this, just the rewards and what we’ve been able to do giving back to the event makes it all worthwhile.”
The weekend, as currently scheduled, will kick off with Youth Hockey Night on Thursday, Feb. 6, followed by three days of hockey games and festivities. For a full schedule of the tournament’s events and any updates due to the weather, visit blackicepondhockey.com.
Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com
Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com