The Yorkton Harvest Hockey Club have announced that they are going to be in the running to host a western Canadian hockey championship in their home arena in the year 2014.
Garth Simms, president of the Harvest, said the team is getting together an application to put forth their bid to host the tournament.
He said he suspects that there will be lots of interest throughout the league they play in, the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League.
Suspected teams that could challenge the Harvest may include Tisdale.
"We're bidding for it!" he said shortly after word had broken.
"It's open to any team to bid for it. We're working on a submission right now."
He said everything has to be completed before April 15.
The tournament no doubt will help the City, economy wise, points out Simms, but the other fringe benefit to hosting this tournament, he notes, will be improving the team's chances of attracting top recruits to play in Yorkton both next season and the year of the tournament.
"The community will be looking for support. The big advantage (would be) it helps us recruit kids."
The team is scheduled to hold their spring camp at the end of April. A proposal to host the Western Regional Championships would likely help them at camp, Simms suggests.
There are 20 players on the teamthey could come from anywhere in the province.
"We hope it is," he said when asked if hosting the games could also be a good recruiting tool.
"It's the process of developing kids," Simms closed.
He also noted that the City has hosted some major events before, including the same tournament back in 1993 when the team was known by its original name, the Mallers; Yorkton also hosted the World Junior 'A' hockey championships and more recently the Canada Cup of Curling in 2008. Each event took place at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
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