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Pond hockey event coming up

FAIRMONT — The Southern Minnesota Pond Hockey Championship is set for this weekend in Fairmont.

The event, marking its ninth year, is played on Sisseton Lake near the Marina Lodge.

Dave Cone, a member of the event’s steering committee, talked about the championship and what people can expect as they come out this year.

“Right now, for this year, we have around 43 teams that include youth up through adults,” he said. “The main focus behind this pond tournament is really to get kids back outdoors and promote our hockey program. We do have sponsors and we are very lucky for that and thankful for their generosity, and the funds all go back into our program.

“We do things like providing no equipment fees for the first couple of years for young players to see if they like the sport. We’re also doing different things as far as skill development. We brought in an ex-NHL player out of Blue Earth and he works with them every Monday night on power skating. We do goalie camps, we do scholarships, so all these funds that we generate this weekend will go right back into the development of young hockey players and keeping the cost down for anyone that’s interested.”

Cone said there will be four or five rinks set up, and lighting will be available for open skating Friday night.

“Anyone that wants to come down and skate, we’ll have skate rentals right there on the lake for them,” he said. “Then the pond games start up Saturday morning and will finish up Sunday afternoon.”

Cone noted that spectator turnout is usually high.

“We have a great committee, and there’s a real community that comes together to make this thing happen,” he said. “So we’ve got a real good group of people, and hopefully we’ll have anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people this weekend, which varies based on the weather.

“We’ll try to have some heaters going down on the ice itself, we’ve had fires in the past, and we’re going to have hay bales for people to sit around. We just want people to get outside and try to enjoy what this beautiful community has to offer. You don’t have to be a hockey person to enjoy it, we’ve had a lot of people over the years just come down and they’re blown away by how fun it is to get out and see people enjoying themselves.”

As far as food, there will be concession stands. Cone shared that there will be pork chops on a stick provided by Martin County Pork Producers.

As far as safety, Cone wants people to know that it is a topic at the top of organizers’ list when planning.

“There’s been some concern in the past over the safety of being on the lakes, but our team has drilled over 50 holes in that area and everything is over 12 inches, more like 14 right now, so we’re pretty confident. We wouldn’t do it if it’s not safe.”

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