SUBMITTED PHOTO
Carter Allan and Ethan Hall of Medicine Hat pose with their bronze medals from the ball hockey nationals held last week at Fort St. Johns, NFLD.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
An experience that was only a dream quickly became a reality and brought bronze-medal glory for two Medicine Hat ball hockey players.
Carter Allan and Ethan Hall took third place with Team Alberta at the ball hockey nationals held last week in Newfoundland. They found out about the selection a week before the games started and the duo needed help funding their trip and hotel rooms.
After generous help from the community making donations and contributing to their bottle drive, the trip became possible with a $4,000 donation from the United Commercial Travellers.
“It means so much to me,” Hall said looking back on the support they received. “Just want to say thank you to everyone who helped us by giving donations and bottles, it was really nice of them. It was a great experience up there.”
“When we first heard about the opportunity we didn’t really think it would be a possibility with the prices,” Allan said. “But the help from the UCT and the community was really important and helped us quite a bit.”
UCT president Andy Jean says they tried to get updates every day on the two Hatters and followed the duo while also helping out at Medicine Hat’s Stampede.
“We couldn’t be more happier with the boys’ success and the team’s success,” Jean said. “For Alberta to bring home the bronze medal is really, really special for them and they worked hard and made sure they give it their all.”
Team Alberta, which was made up of the Edmonton Stars ball hockey team who won Westerns and was selected to represent Alberta, beat the Guelph Cyclones 8-4 to win bronze.
Jean thanked the Medicine Hat community for their support allowing them to make the donation and says they are beyond proud of the duo and their success.
“I talked to some of the members throughout the weekend about how we did and they were just ecstatic about being able to send two Medicine Hat boys to complete for Alberta,” Jean said. “They couldn’t think of a better way to support our communities.”
Both Allan and Hall said their new team was very welcoming and they embraced the high level of play getting to compete against the other top ball hockey talent from across Canada.
“We met a few of them at the airport and everyone on the team was super nice to us, very including,” Allan said. “We also met a few at the hotel and then really the first game we got to know everybody.”
Hall says he learned a lot from the games, including lessons he will apply to his own game going forward.
“What I took out of it was to always be competitive because it was very competitive there, lots of skill,” Hall said. “You always have to work harder than everyone else and you’ll get what you want.”
While they were focused on playing ball hockey and being at their best, the teams were able to explore Fort St. Johns as it was their first time in Newfoundland with both enjoying the ocean views.
“The downtown was decent but when we went on some tours and did some walking around, it was really nice,” Allan said. “The ocean, some big hills, everything was awesome.”
