Photos: Fresh, cold ice for the opening weekend of U.S. Pond Hockey Championship
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The opening weekend of the U.S. Pond Hockey Championship kicked off at Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis. Teams from around the country showed up to skate and shoot for a chance to claim the Golden Shovel next weekend.
This year’s tournament is expected to bring in close to 300 teams and 30,000 to 40,000 spectators, Jesse Delorit, the event manager for the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, said.
One of those teams is Big Tex, a crew of hockey-loving Texans dressed in jerseys with a handlebar moustache donning a cowboy hat. Fred Walters, from Fort Worth, said he has been making the annual pilgrimage to Minnesota for over a decade.
“We first started coming here in 2013. It was 20 below the first day when we played, it was just brutally cold,” Walters said. “We looked like a bunch of penguins out there. We couldn’t move, we had so many clothes on.”
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Since then, Walters said he’s learned to love the cold — even appreciating “freezing our butts off” — and has found local spots to return to each year. The team always goes back to Surly’s Brewing Co. in Minneapolis and makes sure to catch a Gopher game.
And he’s got some memorable matches under his belt, too. Like the time his team was put up against Hobey Baker-winner Brian Bonin.
“We were out there and all the TV cameras show up and all these guys played professional. We were just a bunch of beginners from Texas,” Walters said. “It was such fun playing with those guys.”
Walters said he’s already looking forward to next year.
The event wraps up on Jan. 28.
