The Airdrie CFR Chemical Bisons is used to being on the ice – but not this kind of ice.
Over the Alberta AAA Midget Hockey League’s bye weekend, Bisons players, coaches, parents and members of other local hockey teams, gathered Jan. 18 at the Airdrie Curling Club (ACC) to participate in the first annual Wade Poffenroth Memorial Curling Bonspiel.
The 12-team bonspiel was in honour of Wade “Popper” Poffenroth, the father of Bisons player Connor Poffenroth. After Poffenroth passed away from an unexpected heart attack last October, head coach Dustin Taylor said the Bisons wanted to organize an event in his memory.
“An anonymous donation of $4,000 came in to kind of get things going,” he said. “With that, the criteria asked by the donor was that it had to be related to a Bisons team-building event and it had to be something that could become a legacy event every year.”
The team decided on a bonspiel because of Poffenroth’s love of the sport, Taylor said, adding proceeds from team registrations will be used to create a $500 scholarship in Poffenroth’s name, which will be awarded to a Bisons player each season.
“Wade Poffenroth loved hockey and coaching, but he also loved curling and was an avid curler,” Taylor said. “[This event] was just a way to tie in both worlds of hockey and curling, and kind of create that community and get the kids involved in another sport.”
While the Bisons is Airdrie’s top-level boys’ hockey team for the U17 age group, most players had no prior curling experience. Throughout the bonspiel, players pointed out the challenge of adapting their balance on the ice.
“The pebbles are really different,” said forward JT Luterbach, 17, whose prior curling experience was limited to trying the sport a few times in gym class. “The ice is a lot harder to walk on, but it’s cool.”
Taylor said the players had just one practice session at ACC the night before the bonspiel to acquaint themselves with the sport.
“They think it’s going to be really easy, and the first time they go on, they develop an immediate respect for how hard it is,” he said. “You can see they start…putting more energy into getting better at it.”
Along with the scholarship, $1,000 in proceeds from the yearly bonspiel will support the Bisons’ annual Christmas charity initiative. Started this season, the initiative sees players partnered with youth from the Airdrie Boys’ and Girls’ Club for a subsidized Christmas shopping spree for the child’s caregiver(s).
Luterbach said he enjoys the extracurricular activities organized by the Bisons this year, which supplement the team’s demanding practice and game schedule.
“I think it’s awesome,” he said. “It’s good to be out in the community, and be known for more than just [hockey]. I think it’s important people get to see us as people, students and good community members – I really enjoy it.”
