By Ernie Heit Memorial Hockey League

Adult Non-Contact Rec Hockey League in PA

Ernie Heit Memorial Hockey League – Rec Non-Contact Hockey League for PA

Jul 30, 2019 | 9:47 AM

The Ernie Heit Memorial Hockey League is a Recreational Non-Contact Hockey League in Prince Albert which is set to enter our ninth season this year.

We are looking to raise awareness about the hockey league and what we have been doing and grow our league.

We are a nonprofit corporation. We have had roughly 10 to 13 teams per season for the last eight years.

We have created a little economy. We hire two officials and for every game they are paid. We also hire a time keeper for every game. Some of the officials are from our Prince Albert raiders. The young players love the extra money and they are very well suited for the job.

We play 30 games plus playoffs, we have two divisions, we have trophies for the playoff champions and we have a website that has over 100,000 visits since our inaugural year in 2011. The website is www.leaguelineup.com/ehmhl

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The league was founded by Jesse Heit in memory of his father, Ernie Heit who passed away in 2011.

Ernie Heit was always a sports enthusiast and Jesse wanted to preserve his memory with the league.

Since we are nonprofit we can offer the cheapest organized hockey league prices in the province.

Each team can enter for $5600 guaranteeing them 30 games plus playoffs with the potential for eight more games in playoffs.

You can compare that to Team prices of roughly $8000-$9000 in Saskatoon.

The objective is to get the best quality hockey that is non-contact and still fun for the best price.

We also have trophies for the top points leaders in each division. All of the trophies have been handmade and have been handed out to the winning players to keep each season.

Aside from the league generating income for the officials and time keepers, the league also employs three people other than myself to handle financing, scheduling and official management.

Our registration for the first half of payment is September 10 and the balance is due November 10 for each team. Those interested in registering a team can contact us through the website.

The league generally starts in the last week of September and runs until the first week of April. We play all of our games on artificial ice at the city facilities or else at Buckland.

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Information about the Photos Below:

Starting from the top: the four trophies we hand out each season. Starting left to right: The A division trophy, the A division points leader trophy named after Jim Willoughby (formerly from Shellbrook ) who passed away but did play in our league, the B division trophy and lastly the B division points leader trophy.Jesse built all of these trophies in his dad’s shop and ordered the cups from North star trophies.

The next picture is a picture of my father from 2001. He passed away in 2011 after a two-year battle with brain cancer. The following winter the league was founded. Jesse and two friends (Mike Markell and Scott Isbister) basically started talking about how we would like a more competitive hockey league with officials and timekeepers. It started in the basement of my friends house as a thought and a dream. Once we found a free website to use that is where everything started in the summer of 2011. From there we started raising awareness and our first season took off with just six teams.

The third picture is of Jesse handing the A division trophy to the league winners: the Sens. I am handing the cup to Kelly Guard.

The fourth picture is from 2011 when Jesse had just completed the cups before they have ever been handed out.

The next picture is me handing the Jim Willoughby trophy to one of the annual recipients(Korey Diehl).

Next up is a team picture of the wolves after winning the A division trophy, probably from 2014.

The cover photo is another picture of Ernie from 2006 in Barbados.

We knew there basic idea was to get the best hockey for the cheapest price when we started the League.

Prince Albert is full of incredible hockey players but once their junior careers are finished and if they don’t feel like travelling and playing contact hockey with the various senior hockey clubs around the Prince Albert area, the only other option for hockey players is recreational hockey.

When Jesse moved back to Prince Albert from Calgary in 2010 I was used to very competitive non contact recreational hockey. I was surprised to see that Prince Albert did not have any organized recreational hockey other than tournaments (which are organized very well around here) and the existing recreational hockey league which has quite a few teams but they do not hire officials or use Timekeeper‘s.

It’s basically a scrimmage with low to mid intensity.

“For a lot of people that is perfect but for me I like to play a little bit more competitive hockey.” he says. “I did end up playing senior hockey with Birch Hills for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.”

” I loved playing contact hockey but as I get older my body loves playing non-contact and I think a lot of ageing hockey players can agree with me.”

This league is getting ready to enter our ninth season.

Last season we had 11 teams but I think we are going to lose a couple of them so we are looking to gain more teams and gain more awareness about what we have been doing.