...HISTORY

The SEDMHA Tournament had its beginnings during the hockey season of 1977-78. SEDMHA, an acronym for Shearwater East Dartmouth Minor Hockey Association, was the top competitive level for several minor hockey associations including: Shearwater/Eastern Passage, Woodlawn, Woodside, Westphal/Port Wallis and Cole Harbour/Belyar Minor Hockey Associations with all but Shearwater/Eastern Passage being East Dartmouth.

During the late fall of 77', the SEDMHA Bantam "A" (same as present day "AAA”) team was looking for a tournament to participate in during the Christmas period. No luck. As a result, a group of the parents got together and in a mere 12 days had organized their own Christmas break tournament which consisted of eight Bantam "A" teams with 136 players from across Nova Scotia all competing for tournament awards.

By all accounts the tournament was well received and the organizers decided to apply for a permit to hold a similar event the following year and to expand to include both the SEDMHA Peewee and Atom "A" teams - the birth of the first SEDMHA Tournament.

For the next several years, the original organizing group continued to run an annual SEDMHA Tournament and they eventually became known as the "Silver Seven" - must have been the grey hair. They were Bill Donnelly, Gene Kinch - d. 1995, Phil Leverman, Ross Drake - d. 1989, Earl Smith, Mitch Bower and Vince MacDonald - d. 1995. This group established the growth pattern and future direction for the event. They set in motion the standards for the tournament including accepting all teams who wished to enter, high quality awards, top notch hospitality and a highly competitive level of minor hockey which attracted teams from across the Maritimes and beyond. By the mid eighties this group had retired and the present committee structure was in place with three of those members continuing to serve today.

Since those early years, the Tournament has continued to grow on an annual basis and what started out as an eight team tournament in 1978 is now after 32 years a 250 team, 600 game, 18 arena, single, four day, weekend event attracting teams from across North America and occasionally from Europe. The team mix over the past ten years has been 90% Atlantic Canada and the remaining 10% from Quebec, Ontario, NE US States and an occasional European team.

Dwindling player registration and rising costs forced the amalgamation of the SEDMHA Jets with the Dartmouth Lakers to form the new Dartmouth Whalers Minor Hockey Association in 1986/87. By this time the SEDMHA Tournament was well know for its contribution to Nova Scotia minor hockey and a decision was made to retain “SEDMHA” as the name of the new association’s annual tournament. So where other tournaments have been named to honor individuals who have contributed to Minor Hockey the SEDMHA name honors a proud minor hockey association. The SEDMHA tournament has also honored those who have served the association and committee in the past. The divisional trophies are all named to recognize the contribution of individuals to the association or tournament. The annual “Gene Kinch and Ross Drake Awards” have been adopted in memory of two of the original committee to recognize the individual contributions of a player, coach, hockey supporter and volunteer each year.

The original game format had the teams placed into groups of four, identified as Red, White, Blue or Gold Division with the top two teams in each group playing off in quarter finals, semi finals and eventually, the finals. This format continued for twelve years, until 1991.

As the number of teams applying continued to increase through the late eighties, the format of the tournament became ever more strained. In 1990, it was decided to try a new format for the "C" category teams only. It was likened to a "curling draw" with where you went next depended on whether you had won or lost. The tournament committee was given high praise for this "new" approach and it was therefore decided to use this new format for all levels and categories.

Since the early '90's, the Tournament has followed this unique "play down" format which allows for as few as eight (8) or as many as thirty (30) teams per Category, and as a direct result, our award structure which includes Gold, Silver and Bronze medals; jackets, sweat shirts, T shirts, trophies, banners, plus MVP pucks has resulted in more prize winners per category than any other tournament.

The SEDMHA tournament prides itself on the level of minor hockey played during the event and this combined with the operational improvements made throughout the past thirty years has enabled the tournament to continue to grow and to meet its mandate to provide a competitive year end tournament to as many players and teams as possible. As we enter our fourth decade the SEDMHA Tournament is poised to exceed three hundred teams and continue to offer the premier minor hockey event in Eastern Canada.