Argentineans loving playing Canada's game
Hockey: Only one official rink in country of 40 million
While some Foothills residents were thinking of heading south to avoid winter, there were approximately 15 tourists from Argentina in town for two weeks to do something Canadians take for granted — play hockey.
“I love hockey,” said 28-year-old Ralph Henke from Buenos Aires, Argentina. “My dream was to train with the best. So four years ago I started to raise money for a camp and we started coming to Canada.”
It was the second year the Argentina Bears came to Okotoks to participate in Black Diamond’s Wade Davis’ Torjager Hockey Camp. The Bears beat the Torjager All-stars 13-7 in an exhibition game at the Centennial Arena on Feb. 7.
While the All-stars, consisting of some ex-WHL players and pros like Davis, could have made mincemeat out of the Argentineans, that wasn’t the point.
“We want to promote the game,” said Davis, a former Calgary Hitman and Calgary Dinosaur. “They have improved immesly since two weeks ago. They have incredible passion for the game.”
Henke was making his second trip to Okotoks with the Argentina Bears and he said he can’t believe the Okotoks community has three arenas and plans to build more.
“In Argentina we have maybe a 1,000 hockey players in the whole country,” Henke said. “Argentina is all football (soccer), maybe some rugby and some basketball.”
While you can’t cross the street without finding a soccer pitch in Argentina, the Bears practically have to cross the country to find a full-sized arena.
“We have 40 million people and we have only three arenas and two of those are very small in Buenos Aires,” Henke said of the city of 14 million people. “Most of us have to play inline hockey.”
He said for the Bears to play on a regulation rink they must fly about 4,000 km to get to an arena in south Argentina.
Henke got the hockey bug when he was 11 years old when he saw a cartoon where the characters were playing hockey.
“When I was older I got interested and looked on the Internet about hockey,” Henke said. “Whenever any of my friends went to Disneyland or something we had them buy a hockey stick for us.”
Equipment is always an issue with the Argentinean hockey players.
As a result, they provided a mini windfall for the Okotoks economy while they were here. Not only did they spend two weeks sleeping and eating in Okotoks hotels and restaurants, they dropped some $5,000 at Okotoks sports stores buying equipment.
“Most of the guys bought their skates here,” he said.
They lived and breathed hockey while in town.
“We saw the Flames, the Hitmen, the Okotoks Junior A Oilers — it was tremendous,” Henke said. “We came to see the Midget Oilers play. We loved it. For us they play so good and it is exciting for us to see it.”
He said one of their goals is to share what they have learned in Okotoks and spread their knowledge and passion for the game in Argentina.
“We would love to bring Wade Davis with us and show the government hockey is a very important sport,” Henke said. “It can’t all be about football.”
Davis said he hopes to get to Argentina to help promote the game. His long-term goal is to collect money and equipment for other Argentineans to play hockey.
“I want to help get them started,” Davis said. “I know this sounds ridiculous now, but I don’t see why Argentina can’t be in something like the World Juniors in the future.”
Davis said Okotoks had rolled out the red carpet for the tourists and the Town worked with him to ensure there was sufficient ice time during the two-week period.
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