By Rob Ross
Trevor Van Dyk loves ball hockey. So much so, in fact, that he is a member of two separate teams, the Generals and the TVD. The London Ball Hockey Association (LBHA) is a premier outdoor hockey facilitator, allowing players of all ages, skill sets and experience levels to participate.
Van Dyk’s Generals team is now part of the Tier 1 LBHA division after being elevated from their Tier 3 starting place in 2009. The Generals won both the Tier 3 and Tier 2 championship, and they have been able to adapt to remain competitive. They had to increase their roster size, find more competitive players, add a top goaltender, and land some top free agent forwards and shore up their defensive core.
The Generals have also succeeded at the provincial level. They won the summer Provincial ‘E’ championship, the summer Provincial ‘D’ qualifiers, and the winter Provincial ‘D’ championship, and they are competing in the winter Provincial ‘C’ championship in May.
Why are the Generals so successful?
“Because we are a team,” says Van Dyk. “We win mostly based on hard work, supportive team members, structured play, and excellent goaltending. Our team employs multiple lines that have varying styles of play which makes it difficult for a team to defend.”
Meanwhile, Van Dyk’s other team, TVD, plays in the Masters Division. He says texting has made it much easier to manage two separate LBHA teams. On the TVD front, the team has added a few more players to help in a substitution role, and they just added a goalie who is fresh off a winter league Masters championship.
TVD has competed in other provincial championships in Toronto, Ottawa and here in London, but they have failed to secure a victory, something Van Dyk says is a team goal this season.
“The guys who play ball Hockey here in London are mostly a super bunch of guys, and it’s a good social event and a great way to get exercise.”
Added Van Dyk, jokingly, “LBHA gives us all a good reason to get together to complain about our wives and jobs and all the other players who cheat, or suck, or are too good.”
For more information about the London Ball Hockey Association, or to register yourself or a team, please visit: london.ballhockeyinternational.ca.
london.ballhockeyinternational.ca
