'It's memories for life': Irish team crosses the Atlantic to compete in SEDMHA tournament

With the end of any hockey season in Nova Scotia comes the SEDMHA tournament, but this year, a team from across the Atlantic is also hitting the ice.

Made up of players from multiple teams across the Republic of Ireland, the Saints have come to Nova Scotia for a chance to compete on Canadian turf.

“As much as possible, we try to bring our junior teams to places like Canada and we try to give them the experience of hockey here,” said head coach of the Saints, Paul Cummins in an interview on Thursday.

“It’s amazing, it’s a dream come true being here, everything, hockey here is just brilliant, and everyone here is so nice to you,” said one of the players for the Saints. “At home I play inline hockey a lot, so this is my first time playing ice hockey properly, I have my first ice hockey match tonight so it’ll be interesting.”

The Saints are organized by the Irish Ice Hockey Association, which is working to make ice hockey more accessible for kids in Ireland.

“We’re over here promoting hockey in Ireland, we’re trying to get things going. We have a good junior program despite the lack of rink facilities,” Cummins said.

Cummins says there’s no ice rink within the Republic of Ireland, and the closest ice rink is in Belfast, U.K., so some players will travel hours to train.

“Some of the kids here have a seven-hour round-trip just to train for an hour and a half,” said Cummins.

With many kids not having access to a rink, Cummins says it can take some time to get used to ice hockey.

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“Generally, it takes us a game or two to try and get our ice legs back under us, and we’ve had some coaches, as you can see, lots of Canadian coaches and local coaches up here helping us,” he said.

“The last two days we’ve had so much ice time, we’ve had more ice time in the last two days than the last six months back home, so the kids have really improved.”

Giving kids an opportunity to experience Canada is an experience Cummins says will live with them for their whole lives.

“For them, it’s a dream; it’s memories for life,” he said.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.