The Junior Orange Bowl celebrated its 65th year with its annual Ice Hockey Tournament held at the Kendall Ice Arena. In this tournament there were a total of 14 teams of all ages competing to claim the title of Junior Orange Bowl Hockey champions.
The tournament had four different age groups for participants ranging from 8-16 in which teams competed. There were the Squirt; PeeWee; Bantams, and Midget, which was 16U.
In the Squirt level there were four teams, two of which were teams reigning from Miami (Toros and KIA Select). Also playing in this section was the Scorpions from Tampa and Pines Select from Pembroke Pines. The Toros swept through the teams claiming the championship with the Scorpions as runnerup.
At the Peewee level there also were four teams. The Jr. Panthers were from Coral Springs along with the Toros White and Toros Blue, which both were from Miami. The team that traveled farthest to compete in the annual tournament was the Snow Kings from Colorado. The Snow Kings walked away with the title in the PeeWee division with Toros Blue as runnerup.
In the Bantam Division three teams competed, the Toros from Miami, Thunder from Pembroke Pines and the Everblades from Fort Myers. Walking away with a strong win was the Toros claiming the championship and the Everblades as runnerup.
The Toros in the Midget 16U division decided to step up their game and take a risk and compete in an age group that was higher than their actual ages. This particular Toros team on average was two years younger than the two other teams that were in this division and they still dominated and took the championship game beating Bolles Academy from Jacksonville.
In total the Toros organization won three championships paving the path for future organizations and the Junior Orange Bowl Hockey tournaments to come.
For information about the Junior Orange Bowl’s hockey tournament and other events visit online at www.jrorangebowl.org.
