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PHOTOS: Summit Youth Hockey hosts pond hockey tournament at Breckenridge Golf Club

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Cody Jones

Cody Jones/Summit Daily News
Two players battle for possession during the Colorado Youth Pond Hockey Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025.
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News

From Saturday, Feb. 1, through Sunday, Feb. 2, Summit Youth Hockey hosted close to 65 teams for the Colorado Youth Pond Hockey Tournament.

Previously held at North Pond Park in Silverthorne, on Dillon Reservoir and at Stephen C. West Ice Arena, the annual tournament moved to the pond at the Breckenridge Golf Club this winter.

“We have changed venues so many times,” Summit Youth Hockey director Chris Miller said. “… The town of Breckenridge has stepped up in a big way. They saw the value of this, and they had the idea of bringing it to the golf course. A little smaller venue, but it is a better venue.”

Not only did the new venue pin the pond hockey tournament closer to Stephen C. West Ice Arena in Breckenridge, but it also provided a breathtaking backdrop for visiting teams and their families.

The two-day tournament featured youth 6U and 8U teams as well as girls 10U and 12U teams on Saturday. On Sunday, youth 10U and 12U teams then took to the ice.

For Miller and Summit Youth Hockey, the tournament allows kids to delve deep into the pure roots of the sport and play the game on a natural sheet of ice.

“I think it is just a unique experience,” Miller said. “I think we are comfortable sometimes in the facilities that we have in town here. For a small town, having two sheets of ice is pretty amazing. Pond hockey brings out a little bit more of a gritty kind of game. The ice isn’t going to be perfect, the puck is going to be bouncing, there is going to be snow, you are going to trip and fall.”

Summit Youth Hockey plans to host the tournament at the Breckenridge Golf Club in the coming years.

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