Yarmouth should officially soon know if, as a community, it has been successful in its bid to host the World Junior A Challenge for a second consecutive year.
When it was confirmed that Yarmouth was invited by Hockey Canada to again submit a bid to host the event again, the word was that an announcement would come around the end of January.
Which means an announcement of where the 2013 event will be held is expected very soon.
Speculation has been high since the event ended on Nov. 11 that Yarmouth was in a good position to host the event again.
Yarmouth excelled as host of the event, which brought six junior A teams to the region for over a week in November – this included two Canadian teams and teams from the United States, Russia, Switzerland and Czech Republic. Hockey Canada officials said Yarmouth had exceeded expectations as the host community.
“We're just overwhelmed,” Hockey Canada chairman Mike Bruni said at the time. “I’ve been to this event across the country, it’s been going on for a long time, and Yarmouth has set the bar to a level that is higher than any.”
Hockey Canada has never held the World Challenge in the same community two years in a row so the fact that Yarmouth was invited to submit a hosting bid again further speaks to success of last year’s event and Hockey Canada’s confidence in the town and its volunteers. A Hockey Canada official is in Yarmouth this week meeting with members of last year’s organizing committee and the committee has also already made presentations to the various local municipal councils to line up some funding for the event.
Earlier this week a volunteer appreciation party was held at Brunswick Bowling Lanes. Around 150 people volunteered for the challenge last year.
For a look back at last year's event click here.
