The 100 Mile Old Timers Hockey Association grew to four teams during the 2024/2025 season.
Association president Sean Hunt said they had to reshuffle the teams a month into the season after several new players wanted to join, growing from three teams to four. He noted this made their season finals on March 8 all the more exciting.
"We started the year with about 40-something players. Then we started garnering more interest later on and we actually brought in another 20 players and did a redraft so we had four teams in the second week of November," Hunt explained. "It was great seeing the new guys come in, we had a lot of new faces this year, which was great."
Hunt has been president of the association for the last two seasons and first joined four years ago. He said he has played hockey his whole life and over the years has met some great guys playing hockey and he was happy to help run the league.
Every winter the 100 Mile Old Timers Hockey Association play games twice a week at the Rolf Zeis Memorial Arena in Lac La Hache. Hunt said the games are friendly but competitive with all league members being 35 or older, with their current oldest player clocking in at 69.
"It's an unreal group of guys out there who just like to have fun, get some exercise and then hang out with each other after," Hunt remarked. "it's a good range of players, people and age."
For their finals on March 8, Hunt said they had their third and fourth-place teams face off followed by their first and second-place teams, based on their performances throughout the season. This year New and Used beat out the Dirty Nailers 6-5 for third place while Team Rona and South Cariboo Motorsports went into overtime to determine the winner which was Team Rona who won 4-3. Hunt remarked they don't usually do overtime but didn't want to end the season with a tie.
Hunt added that the Lac La Hache community really came out to watch and support the league alongside the family members of the players. He's already looking forward to next season and capitalizing on their growth.
"I'd love to see it grow even more. It would be great to have five teams (next season) and get it up to what it used to be," Hunt said. "It'd be great to see more people coming out to have some fun."
Early registration will begin in August this year with the season getting started in the first week of October, weather-dependent. Anyone looking to find out more is encouraged to keep an eye on the 100 Mile Old Timers Hockey Association's Facebook page.
"If anyone is looking to play some hockey and have some fun with a bunch of guys and like to have some exercise, a couple of beers and barbeque every once in a while, come on down," Hunt remarked.
