Sokil Kyiv Travels to Canada for
Hockey Tournament
Toronto –
The Sokil-Kyiv ’92 team from the professionally acclaimed SOKIL Youth Hockey
Olympic Reserve Association (whose graduates include NHL players Fedotenko,
Ponikarovsky, Khrystich and Zhitnik) are participating in the Toronto Marlboros
International Holiday Classic Hockey Tournament (Tournament Sanction
#A26-07-08) from December 26 – 30th, 2007, at Canlan Ice Sports
Centre in Etobicoke, in Toronto’s west-end.
The team competes in both Ukraine
and Belarus. Last year, Sokil-Kyiv ’92 finished second
behind Kharkiv in the Ukrainian Hockey League.
This year, in the Belarus League, (comprised of ten member clubs ---
eight from Belarus, one from
Latvia and Sokil Kyiv from Ukraine), the
Sokil-Kyiv ’92 team is currently in first place. The team’s strongest asset is its defensive
line.
Hard to imagine, Ukraine
is home to only four indoor ice pads which are situated in Kyiv, Kharkiv,
Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson
and these accommodate a league of six hockey clubs, three in the Capital City
of Kyiv and one in each of the remaining three cities. The team faces unique challenges associated
with the development of a nation’s infrastructure and more specifically the
rejuvenation of organized sports within Ukraine. Hockey in Ukraine is organized very differently to what we
are accustomed to here in North America. Hockey training is associated with the school
system and team participants are triaged as students within one
class. They study together, train
together and compete together, thereby, avoiding any potential scheduling
conflicts between academics and sports.
Given the vast geography of their hockey league, games are played on
Saturday and Sunday, back-to-back against the same team with the host team
billeting the travelling, visiting team.
Participation in this tournament and the team’s stay in Canada was made
possible through the generous support of:
AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines, Mike Chraba and the Toronto Marlboros
Organization, the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) and the Ukrainian World
Congress. Corporate sponsorships include
the Ukrainian Credit Union Ltd., Caravan Logistics, AA Floors, East European
Professional Hockey
School, Tanchak Auto
Services and Treble Clef Recording Studio.
For more
information, contact: Michael Chraba at 416.247.2411 or
mchraba@torontomarlboros.com;
Bob J. Rad
at 416.726.0803 or bjrad@eephs.com