November 13/13

It's the Wade Hamer Challenge Cup today in Yellowknife.  If you aren't from Yellowknife, you have no idea what this even means, I know.

There are only two high schools in Yellowknife.  There is the public school, Sir John Franklin High school, where my father went for a year back in the stone ages (Love you, daddy!), and where my sister went to high school once we moved to Yellowknife, back in the Industrial Revolution age (Love you, K!), and then there's the Catholic school, St. Patrick High School, which I attended some time last century.  To be clear, there was no Catholic fervor leading to my attendance at St. Pat's...when we moved to Yellowknife, it was only two blocks up the hill from where we lived, and I think sheer convenience won out over any religious considerations.  As I got older, it was just easier to keep me at St. Pat's with my friends rather than transfer me over to Sir John. 

So there was a rivalry between my Sir John Alum Father and Sister (and later my brother-in-law who taught at Sir John), and me, the lone Fighting Irish ("fighting" dropped during my high school years in a gross abuse of School Board power over the wishes of the students).  Naturally, with only two high schools in town, there is an innate sense of rivalry focused on sports and competitions, but because of the small population and the relatively isolated location of Yellowknife, the rivalry is not sustainable in real life terms. 

ANYWAY...some 29 years ago, there was a challenge to a hockey game between the two schools, and of course, it became an annual event.  Back in my day, the game was played on a Thursday night, and there were pep rallies and cheerleaders (and yes, I was one), and we'd all crowd into the hockey arena to watch our teams battle it out for supremacy.  There would be a rally on the Friday to celebrate either the win or the team, and then life would get back to normal for another year.

I'm told in recent years, the timing has changed to midday on a week day, which might have something to do with preventing delinquency, which I guess I understand, but I find less fun.  My first year as a cheerleader, I was grabbed by an older boy from Sir John who intended to take me outside for a snow wash, but ended up being attacked by a St. Pat's mob, and in the process, he dropped me head-first onto a concrete floor, resulting in a slight concussion and a bump on my head that remains to this day.  So yeah, I guess the administrators have some good reason to make this a daytime event.

This year is my second nephew's first year in high school, and he is going to St. Pat's.  Why?  Because my sister now works there, and she's converted from Falcon to Irish!  My brother-in-law is still in the Public School system, but he now teaches at one of the elementary/middle schools (in fact, the one that nephew attended from K-8), so things just sort of worked out that he would go to school at St. Pat's.

What does all of this babbling have to do with the Challenge Cup?  Well, this nephew and his brother are star athletes, and both excel at hockey, to the point where both play on teams with older players.  Their father was on the NHL track, and it seems the sons are too, if they choose it.

St. Pat's Boys' Team WON!!  In O/T, my nephew scored the winning goal AND completed (get this) his Hat Trick.

Who is one proud Aunt?

...Wish you were here.

(GO IRISH!)