BURTON (WJRT) -
(02/09/12) - Plenty of pucks and broomballs will be flying behind Bubba O'Malley's this weekend. The Burton bar and restaurant is hosting it's first ever "Pond Hockey Tournament and Winter Festival."
"It's going to be huge. We've got a big beer tent, five ponds. We'll have skating, hockey and broomball, so it's going to be a great winter festival out here at Bubba's," said Bubba O'Malley's owner John Fick.
That's if the weather cooperates. Teams were hoping to test out the ice with an early morning skate Thursday, but conditions were a little soupy at best.
"Mother nature looks like she's going to cooperate. This weekend, it's going to get really cold, and the ice is starting to freeze up. I think we'll be alright," Fick said.
The four on four tournament is sanctioned by USA hockey, and open to men, women and kids of all ages, but there'll be plenty of action off the ice as well.
"We're going to have carnival games for the kids, and it's just going to be phenomenal. We're going to do this every year," said Davison Optimist Club member Neicy Kowalczyk.
Proceeds benefit the Davison Optimist Club and the numerous Mid-Michigan organizations and agencies it helps out.
"We send some of the Whaley kids to camp in the summer. Any time there's something that's needed, we do essay contests, scholarships, anything to do with children is what we're all about," Kowalczyk said.
Even with temperatures bouncing up and down, there was no way that organizers would consider moving this event indoors.
"This is the way. Everybody grew up playing pond hockey in their back yard or on a local pond, so it's bringing back the old times," Fick said.
Bubba's has been working on the rinks since December, and now with time running down, the staff is hoping the "hockey gods" provide a little help.
"We are going to have ice. We're the Optimists. We're going to have ice. Freeze baby, freeze," Kowalczyk said.
The pond hockey and winter festival runs Friday through Sunday, and Bubba's is still looking to register more teams.
