Contact InformationOffice Location: BAYplex Arena, 151 North Street,
Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, B1A 3S1
Office Manager: Tracey Hanrahan
Telephone: (902) 842-1533
Fax: (902) 842-1581
Email:gbminorhockey@ns.aliantzinc.ca
Website Comments - Requests
email contact: ctcampbell55@hotmail.com
Office Hours: Tuesday-Friday 9:00-4:00pm or by appointment.
Home Rinks:
BAYplex, 151 North St, Glace Bay. Tel:(902) 849-6066
Dominion Rink, King's Road Dominion, Tel: (902) 849-6933
2009-2010 Minor Hockey Executive
President - James Edwards
Past President - Binky Atkinson
Vice President - Finance & Admin - Sonny MacDougall
Vice President - Hockey Operations - Greg O'Neill
Coaching - Derrick Hayes
Development - Ken Tracey
Equipment - Gary Gracie
Female Hockey - Darren MacEachern
Fund Raising - Aubrey Cameron
Ice Allocation - Phillip O'Neill
Risk Management - Mike Binder
Secretary - Nancy Currie
Special Events - Shelley Simms
Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association
President's Message for 2009-102009-10 PRESIDENT"s MESSAGE
Welcome back to another season of hockey in the Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association. On behalf of the executive & staff I'd like to welcome all new and returning players and parents and to extend our thanks and best wishes to all graduating players from our Association. We currently have more than 560 players registered so it appears likely that this will be another banner year for our association.
Our Novice and Tots programs continue to flourish and that can only provide a solid foundation for our future. We plan to ice teams in both the AAA & A category in all divisions, a B team in at least Bantam and Midget and for the 3rd season we will be hosting as many as 3 Midget C teams. This non-contact brand of hockey is growing in popularity throughout the local area and right across the province. We've received positive feedback from the players and coaches over the past two years and we encourage our fans to check it out.
In addition to the teams mentioned above, we are also hoping to ice a female team in all divisions for the 1st time in the history of GBMHA. This is a remarkable achievement when one considers that just 3 short years ago we were taking players in from neighboring associations to make up 1 all-female team. Hats off to the girls who blazed the trail for our young girls coming up and who have shown that it is not just a boys game anymore . I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the volunteers who stuck it out with the female game through some pretty serious lows over the past few years and nurture it to the point where we are today. Great job !
Once again we will be offering fitness training for our teams this season. Coaches can arrange a time with Bill Smith at his fitness centre on Beacon St. and MH will pay for a 1-hour session per week. Teams started off strong last year but faded as the season went on. We encourage players and coaches to take advantage of this training. Another initiative we will be testing this season is video-replay instruction. Ken Tracey has agreed to champion this exciting new development tool. He will arrange with coaches to video-tape their game or practice and review it with the team in the minor hockey room. Our hope is that teams will find this to be a useful instructional tool while adding more fun to the game for the players. Coaches should contact Ken early to arrange times as we expect this initiative to be well received and he will likely be kept quite busy.
And speaking of development, I'm very happy to announce that Rodger Cuzner has agreed to conduct 4 coaching seminars at GBMH throughout the season. For those who know Rodger only as the MP for the area, let me assure you that his first love is hockey. His coaching credentials and resume are without equal in these parts and I know our coaches and players will benefit greatly from his vast knowledge and experience and of course Rodger's delivery makes the sessions the hottest ticket in town. So coaches make sure you free-up your calendar when he is scheduled ... the next one btw is Nov. 7th in the MH room. All bench staff are welcome.
I'd like to thank Paula MacNamara for her many years of dedicated service to the hockey community in Glace Bay. Paula ran the administrative side of minor hockey in Glace Bay and left us at the end of last season to pursue personal goals. She did a great job and we are going to miss her. But you know the old adage is true that in every dark cloud there is a silver lining. For over the summer we were very fortunate to hire Tracey Hanrahan as the new Office Manager at GBMH. Tracey started working in August and already has proven to be a very capable, dedicated ,well organized and likeable individual. Best of luck to both Paula and Tracey.
In closing, I would like to remind our members that the most important piece of equipment that GBMH owns is our ticket drum. Thank you for your continued support by getting out there and selling those Glace Bay Minor Hockey 50/50 tickets. With that revenue we are able to keep our registration costs in check while providing certain initiatives like those covered in this message.
Watch for regular updates and the expansion of our GM website this year.
Thank you and have a great year.
James Edwards
President
Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association History Of Glace Bay Minor Hockey ...since 1942The Glace Bay Minor Hockey organization is perhaps one the oldest continuous operating minor hockey organizations in Cape Breton, if not the entire province of Nova Scotia. During the 1942-43 inaugural season the organization was originally named as the Pee Wee Hockey Association.
One of the pioneer founders for this organization was Judge J. Louis Dubinsky who gathered a number of other key community volunteers such as: Art MacKinlay, Allister Morrison, Dr. O.B. Smith, Fr. Nash, Dr. Donald Ferguson, Earl Gratto…(just to name a few) to help launch the program. Soon thereafter, this group changed their name to the Glace Bay Youth Hockey Association, which was retained for many years, until it finally merged into the Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association.
Initially public support for the new organization was lukewarm, but by the season 1944-45 season, the association iced teams in the Bantam, Midget and Juvenile age categories comprising of nineteen teams and over 250 players. During the mid-to-late 40’s it was not unusual to see crowds of between 1000-2000 fans attend a Friday evening of youth hockey at the old Miners Forum. The league provided an excellent brand of competitive hockey which soon developed into some truly fun cross-town rivalries. Players suited up from Glace Bay, Donkin, Port Morien, Birch Grove, Dominion, Reserve Mines and for several years, New Waterford participated in the minor hockey loop.
The association gradually expanded it’s age groups to include Novice and Pee Wee divisions which were very well accepted. In the early 50’s hockey registration and interest began to slump, so in order to help alleviate this downturn, the Glace Bay Rotary Club stepped forward to begin a 14 team Rotary Common School Hockey League for bantam age players. This local school league proved to be very popular, as even to this day, many parents of today’s minor hockey children still vividly remember the excitement which was propelled by the experience of playing for their respective rival schools. In 1952 all 14 teams participated in the first ever Sports Night featuring skills competitions and games, which drew up-wards to 5000 spectators for each annual performance.
In the early 60’s, a local gentleman by the name of Bob (Bugsy) Seward, founded and coordinated the popular Glace Bay Community Hockey Clinic. While this Hockey Clinic continued to operate, eventually the local Common School league wound wind down in the early 1970’s when the local Rotary sponsorship was lost. The bantam division then returned under the Youth Hockey umbrella once again. Meanwhile the Community Hockey Clinic continued its operation until the 1980’s, when it merged the entire novice-juvenile age programs into what we now know as the Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association. During this hockey development era a number of valuable volunteers were instrumental in providing key support to keeping the program active. Although it may be virtually impossible to name every volunteer along the way, we would like to name just a few notables who held key executive positions: Angus MacDonald, John F. MacDonald, Doug Crowe, Warden Joe Wadden, Howard MacKinnon, Robert MacIsaac Angus MacDougall, Robert “Toomey” MacPherson, Ryan Sullivan, John MacDonald Sheldon Brown, Bernie O’Neil, Margie O’Neil, Tom Snook, Gary King, Brian Aucoin, Lynn Kelly, Nickey Bonnar, Brian Spencer, Linda & Kenny Kennedy, Tom O’Keefe, Barry "Binky" Atkinson and James Edwards who is currently serving as President of the GBMH Association since the 2007-08 season.
Once again the organization is enjoying yet another growth period having upwards to 500 players being registered for the 2007-08 season. Divisions range from Tots to Midget and in recent years the association has been experiencing a very favorable growth in female hockey participation. DISCLAIMERAlthough care and good intention has been taken in preparing the information on this site, we do not and can not guarantee the accuracy thereof. Anyone using the information does so at their own risk and shall be deemed to indemnify the owner/author of Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association from any and all personal injury or damage arising from such use.
SAFETY:
Through a community partnership with the local Cape Breton Regional Police Services this site will be regularly monitored to help keep our children safe and to deter misue of our web-based technology.
PRIVACY:
Any and all information submitted through this website will be handled in a strictly confidential manner and will be used only as intended for supporting website communication, unless the provider grants permission otherwise.
COPYRIGHT:
Copyright @ 2006-10 (Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association). All rights reserved. No duplication in part or in full may be made which contains text, images etc. on this website without prior written consent of our Association. | 
