TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Since its inception in 1959 this Tournament has been sponsored by the Royal Canadian Legion Branch, 255 Riverside, and our own Ladies' Auxiliary, now called the Riverside Community Ladies' Club for Youth.
In the early years the competition consisted of 20 teams playing over two days. It was a you play who came affair with A teams playing AAA teams and C teams playing AA. There was little concern with performance ratings. If a coach felt his team was good enough to win, then you played all comers. As word spread and teams began coming from farther and farther away, the tournament was changed to 3 days, Dec. 26, 27 and 28 in order to allow teams to spend Christmas at home, before leaving for the tournament. The format was also changed to three divisions A, B, C so that completely unknown teams could be more fairly placed. In 1989 Kalvesta, a AA team from Sweden, was our first European team. This occurred as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations. The format was changed to 4 days in order to allow European teams time to travel.
Since then teams from the United States, Great Britain, Sweden, Hungary (our first Eastern European team) along with teams from the Republic of Slovakia the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Russia and Latvia have competed in our prestigious tournament.
In September of each hockey season the wheels are set into motion, gearing up for the tournament that takes place at Christmas time.
The Ladies Club begins ordering, preparing and freezing some of the $8,000.00 worth of food, which the players and coaches will eat free of charge, a tradition which dates back to the competition's inception.
The Tournament has three other cherished traditions: the Guy Morgan Award, the Art McKenzie Award and the Randy Schuchard Memorial Award each commissioned to honour great men, one a skilled player, the other two fine coaches.
We estimate that sometime during this year's tournament the fourteen thousandth player will step on the ice to compete in this, Ontario's oldest Bantam Tournament.
AWARDS
Art McKenzie Award
This award honors Art McKenzie, the first RMHA Bantam Travel Coach. Art began coaching in Riverside in 1958, the year Riverside Arena first opened. In 1959 his team won the first Bantam Tournament. His teams won again in 1961 and 1966. Art, who coached Bantam hockey in Riverside for nine years passed away in 1991.
This award recognizes the coach who best exemplifies excellent coaching ability, fair play and sportsmanship during the tournament and remains on permanent display in our facilities.
AWARD RECIPIENTS
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1991: Kevin McIntosh - Windsor Club 240
1992 Don Moorhouse - St. Louis Blues
1993 christser Gustavsson - Osteraker, Sweden
1994 Gary Tockman - St. Louis blues
1995 Al Cormier - Riverside Rangers
1996 Bob Sylva - Tecumseh Eagles
1997 Barry Tapak - Tecumseh Eagles
1998 Tony Piroski- Essex Ravens
1999 Lou Rassey - Michigan Juguars
2000 Greg Filiatrault - Lasalle Sabres
2001 Shawn Zimmerman - Muskegon Chiefs
2002 Warron Rost - England
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2003 Jeff Battiston - Belle River Rink Rats
2004 Rob Shaw - Tecumseh Eagles
2005 Bill Mann - Canton Crush
2006 - Dave Jarvie - Mt. Clemens Wolves
2007 John Kahler - Canton Crush
2008 Rick Rewiako - Chicago Firewagon Yellowjackets
2009 Chris Ziriada - Riverside Rangers
2010 - Bob Labute - Tecumseh Eagles
2011 Steve Glover - Summit
2012 - Richard Sulkowski - Macomb Mavericks
2013 - Mark Hogue - Northern Kentucky
2014 - Steve Acorn - Macomb Mavericks
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Randy Schuchard Memorial Award
Beginning in 2003, this award is presented to the Most Valuable Goaltender in each division.
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2003:
Bantam Minor - Joseph Pare (Windsor Jr. Spitfires)
Bantam Major - Devin Sutton ( AFI Thunder)
Midget Minor - Tom Lanoue (Belle River Rink Rats)
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2009:
Bantam Minor - Corbin Kaczperski (Port Huron Flags)
Bantam Major - Dalan Bulchak (Belle Tire)
Midget Minor - Richard Poisson (Riverside Rangers)
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2004:
Bantam Minor - Mitchell Charlebois (Riverside Rangerss)
Bantam Major - Michael Ferrato ( Tecumseh Eagles)
Midget Minor - Dan Mendonica (Belle River Rink Rats)
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2010:
Bantam Minor - Sean Stephens (Trenton)
Bantam Major - Marcin Wypchowicz (Riverside)
MIdget Minor - Sergiy Pysarenko
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2005:
Bantam Minor - Curtis Martinu (Belle River Rink Rats)
Bantam Major - Alex Caruana (Allen Park Huskies)
Midget Minor - Joey Rodorigo (Westland Jr. Wolves)
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2011:
Bantam Minor - James Charron (Windsor)
Bantam Major - Jack Leavy (Birmingham)
Midget Minor - Daniel Klinck (Windsor) |
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2006:
Bantam Minor - Andrew Polkosnik (Riverside Rangers)
Bantam Major - Alexandr Kuzmenko (Kazakhstan Torpedo)
Midget Minor - James Stratton (Plymouth Stingrays)
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2012:
Bantam Minor - Mate Sagi (Slovakia)
Bantam Major - Carson Rossi (London)
Midget Minor - Josh Breault (Riverside) |
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2007:
Bantam Minor - Keith Ladouceur (Canton Crush)
Bantam Major - Spencer Craig (Garden City Stars)
Midget Minor - Kristers Gudlevskis (Latvia-Riga LB)
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2013:
Bantam Minor - Erica Fryer (Lasalle)
Bantam Major - Jason Altimari (Toronto)
Midget Minor - Jake Wilkins (Sarnia)
Midget Major - Josh Breault (Riverside) |
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2008:
Bantam Minor - Justin Mancuso (Tecumseh Eagles)
Bantam Major - John Thibault (Michigan Travellers)
Midget Minor - Mark Cleminson (Riverside Rangers)
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2014:
Bantam Minor - Dominic Wendel (Mich Warriors)
Bantam Major - Kristen Swiatoschik (Lasalle)
Midget Minor - Ryan Ward (Macomb)
Midget Major - Erik Morneau (Riverside) |
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GUY MORGAN MVP AWARD
This award was established to honour Guy Morgan who played Rep hockey in RMHA and who died in a tragic automobile accident in 1979 at the age of 21. Bill Hebert, a lifetime member of the Riverside Hockey Association and one of Guy's coaches, donated the trophy.
The award is presented to the player who best demonstrates ability, team leadership and good sportsmanship during the tournament. It is presented on the final day of the tournament and remains on permanent display in the RMHA home center.
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1980 Rob Mcgregor - Chatham, Ontario
1981 Tony Hockin - Flint Michigan
1982 Richie Smolen - Chicago Ilinois
1983 Mike Barton - Chinquacousy, Ontario
1984 Mike Pearson - Niagra Falls, Ontario
1985 Sylvain Poirier - Montreal Que
1986 Jamie Hooks - Kitchener, Ontario
1987 Tony Prpic - Cleveland (Winterhurst)
1988 Pete Cook - Welland Ontario
1989 Christer Karrison - Kalvesta, Sweden
1990 Ashley Tait - Great Britain
1991 Tim Findlay - Windsor Club 240
1992 Richard Grubb - Great Brittan
1993 David Crawford - Riverside Rangers
1994 Kevin Delaney - Lasalle Sabres
1995 Nik Antropov - Kazakstan
1996 Artie Phillips - Riverside Rangers
1997 Tim Spiewak - Michigan Hooters
1998 Patrick Turcotte - Seaway Valley Rapids
1999 Adam Filiatrault - Lasalle Sabres
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2000 Ron Shepley - Essex Ravens
2001 Joel Chittle - Tecumseh Chiefs
2002 Shawn Thompson - England
2003 Andrew Hurst - Belle River Rink Rats
2004 Richard Panik - Bratislava Slovakia
2005 Mitch Carpenter - Canton Crush
2006 Ily Novikov - Mosco North Stars
2007 Richard Kepitis - Latvia-Riga LB
2008 Chris Van Damme - Chicago Firewagon Yellowjackets
2009 Brett Siddall - Windsor Jr. Spitfires
2010 - Hunter Corp - Tecumseh Eagles
2011 Michael Long - Windsor
2012 - Milos Roman - Slovakia
2013 Ian Rentfrow - Northern Kentucky
2014 - Liam Hogan - Riverside
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