Cross-border ‘Squirt’ league being planned

The Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association and Falls Rec Hockey are in preliminary talks to overhaul their “Squirt” hockey programs to form a house league of teams from here and the Falls.
The new league, if successful, would begin play this season. It would allow both associations to pool ice team and drastically cut travel time for the “Squirt” teams, which are made up of nine- and 10-year-olds.
“Right now it’s kind of preliminary, and both sides will have to go into the details a little bit, but we’ve spoken to each other about helping each other out,” said FFMHA president Wayne Strachan.
Tim Bright, president of Falls Rec Hockey, insisted that “right now things are not concrete on it,” but that the move should solve many problems for “Squirt” hockey on both sides of the border.
“At that age, the travelling is getting to be horrendous,” he noted. “And we’ve got into this situation because of a lack of a number of kids, whereas in the past, we haven’t had this problem.”
Not only would less travel mean less time for young hockey players spent on the road, it also would cut into the price of playing.
“Oh, you bet. They’d [prices] be going down drastically,” Bright stressed.
Lowering travel time is just as important for Fort Frances.
“Whatever we can do as an association to help strengthen theirs, and in reality it’ll help us, too,” Strachan said, adding the FFMHA also would gain valuable ice time available across the river.
“I think it’s a win-win situation for both minor hockey boards,” he enthused.
If the first season was successful, Bright said bringing other communities into the fold would be the next step, and suggested Emo as an ideal example.
“We are looking into the future on this,” he remarked.
While talks are still very preliminary, Bright speculated the league could be made up of two teams from International Falls and four from Fort Frances.
He also insisted that he wouldn’t be cutting his “Squirts” off from matches with their Minnesota rivals, but that games in nearby communities well over an hour away probably would be limited to a handful of tournaments where the young players could get the most games for the travel time.
And, of course, Bright said that while he’s excited about the two towns working together, he wants to keep just a little animosity going.
“We still want to teach that rivalry between the Falls and the Fort,” he said. “It’s hard to keep the traditional rivalry between the cities and making it a fun one.”