Pond Hockey Classic makes cold, triumphant return

MEREDITH — After last year's cancellation due to unseasonable warmth, the New England Pond Hockey Classic is back with a frigid vengeance. As players took to the ice for the first set of games on Friday morning, temperatures sat just above zero degrees, and were smashed down even further thanks to punishing winds gusting across the ice of Lake Waukewan. 

Despite the bitter conditions, players were out in full force. For founder Scott Crowder, it was a hard-fought victory. 

“To go through COVID and last year's cancellation and the fight we had this year to get the ice ready, it's been a battle,” Crowder said. “But to have 275 teams here and 2,200 participants and 26 rinks on Lake Waukewan, it's pretty cool and pretty cold.”

Last year, warm temperatures caused the ice to start to thaw on Meredith Bay, the typical location for the tournament. After organizers were unable to keep up with the ever-growing slush and water coating the ice, the tournament was canceled. This year, the Lakes Region experienced even higher winter temperatures, preventing Meredith Bay, and all of Lake Winnipesaukee, from fully freezing as of Friday. Crowder and his team found refuge in the smaller but more solidly frozen nearby Lake Waukewan to host the event. 

Due to the relocation, players were transported like excited kids via school bus from various parking lots across Meredith to the lumber yards of LaValley Middleton Building Supply, where they spilled out by the dozens to take the ice.

This is not the first time, nor likely the last, that the Pond Hockey Classic has used Waukewan. 

“We've come here twice before, once in 2014 and 2016,” recalled Crowder. “For the town of Meredith to allow us to do it, provide the permits, for LaValley Building supply to use the back portion of the property, is the only way this can be salvaged when we have a mild winter.”

For the players, this year's tournament was a much-needed and beloved return, while the cold temperatures simply posed an additional challenge instead of a deterrence. 

“It's nice to be on solid ice, but I might trade the temperatures,” joked Connor Sullivan from Seattle. He plays for the No Regretzkies, who have participated in the tournament for eight years. “We don't let the record reflect the amount of fun we have.”

The No Regretzkies all went to high school together in Simsbury, Connecticut, and have since scattered across the country. Members reunited from as far away on the West Coast as Portland, Oregon, to Boston, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Maine. 

“We are also the most sponsored team in the entire tournament,” claimed Drew Barrett with a grin.

This year's classic was Henry Howard's first, who came up from the Boston area to play for the New Hampshire Bruins. Howard said he'd never played in conditions this extreme before. 

“Nothin' like this for pond hockey,” Howard said, taking cover from the wind behind an ice fishing tent. “You get out there and get warm, start movin' around, get the feet goin' and the blood flowin', after a couple of shifts I'd say the chill was gone.”

Unfortunately for Howard and many other players, his team didn't bring their own large tents to warm up and change in between matches.  

“We got nothin',” Howard said, gesturing to an open changing area near the shore. “We're just right on the benches over there.” 

“It's been tough,” said Lee Murray of the Reggie Gremlins from behind a frozen beard and mustache. “The wind is a key factor. Anytime you get any type of sweat on ya, it freezes. It's been good, though.”

The Bruins players reflected the sentiment of harsh, but ultimately tolerable conditions. 

“I've had to skate in a headwind, but nothing too bad right now,” Howard's teammate Caleb Drouin said of current conditions. “A little cold." 

When asked his limits when it comes to the cold, Drouin said. “I don't even know... We're going to test 'em this weekend, that's for sure.” 

Watching the event was a pair of Meredith firefighters in a tool trailer equipped with a portable campfire, hot coffee and two boxes of donuts. It was still early, but firefighter John Roe said things had been going smoothly.

“We checked in with everyone who's passing by, everyone seems to be taking the proper precautions to stay warm,” Roe said. “We're hoping that people can continue to take the right precautions to keep themselves warm in this weather.”

“There's a lot more hockey to be played and a lot more potential elements to deal with,” Crowder said Friday morning. “We're just going to have to roll with it. This event is like clockwork, we've gotten it down to a science, but we're always at the mercy of mother nature and the weather.”