The Logan Boulet Memorial Tournament starts Oct. 17, 2019 (LMHA logo courtesy Facebook)

By Justin Goulet

Logan Boulet’s legacy honoured at second annual Lethbridge tournament

Oct 14, 2019 | 8:00 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – For the second consecutive year, a Lethbridge hockey tournament will pay homage to Logan Boulet, and one of his family members is very excited about it.

“This is the first year it’s an invitational tournament, not just an apply and get accepted [tournament]. The competition – we expect to be very strong. We’ve got seven other teams plus the Lethbridge team coming in that are all high caliber,” said Kevin Higo, Logan’s uncle.

Higo is with the Lethbridge Minor Hockey Association and is part of the team putting the second annual Logan Boulet Memorial Tournament.

Eight different teams will be at the ATB Centre October 17, 18 and 19. Players are in the 15-year age group, according to Higo.

Two teams are coming from British Columbia, two from Saskatchewan and the other four from Alberta. Higo said that the competition will be tough, and attendees can expect to see some strong hockey.

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“What we decided this year is we wanted to make the tournament more competitive – try and draw in the best competition as possible, so we actually invited teams instead of accepting applications. I think we have, I want to say, anywhere between nine and 10 teams on a waiting list if that was to happen of a team falling out,” he explained.

“What we did is we approached the defending champions from the Alberta Minor Midget [Hockey] League (St. Albert Flyers), the defending champions from the BC Minor Midget [Hockey ]League (Okanagan Rockets) and the defending champions from the Canadian Sports School [Hockey] League (NAX Academy) and we were able to get all of them.”

LOGAN’S LEGACY

Logan Boulet was one of the victims of the April 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

Following his death, the Boulet family donated Logan’s organs, sparking a wave of organ donation sign-up across Canada known as “The Logan Boulet Effect”.

Higo said it’s important to carry on Logan’s legacy.

“The 15-year-old year for him was a real big development year for him. He always talked fondly of his time at this level. I think it’s a great development stage for a lot of our guys and if you look at most of the kids that go on through the Lethbridge zone, one of their stepping stones is to get through this tournament and by us making it more competitive and bringing in some more high-profile tams it’s going to challenge our kids from this zone to play better and play against better competition,” he said.

“That was one thing that Logan did on a regular basis, was he challenged himself to get better. By having the tournament named after him – I think it’s just great.”

Higo added that Logan “wasn’t afraid to go outside the box” and challenge himself to get better.

“I think by us going out and seeking the higher-end teams or the teams with more of a winning reputation is a good challenge for our guys and I think just kind of segways between the name of the tournament and what we’re trying to accomplish.”

The teams that will take part in the invitational tournament are:

· The Lethbridge Hurricanes Midget AAA Minors

· The Saskatoon River Kings

· The Okanagan Rockets

· Prairie Academy (Caronport, SK)

· NAX Academy (Edmonton)

· Red Deer North Star Chiefs

· Vancouver NW Hawks

· St. Albert Flyers

Over the past three year, the Hurricanes team has won two gold and one silver at the Hockey Alberta Provincials. The tournament runs Thursday, October 17 through October 19 at Lethbridge’s ATB Centre.

Higo said a schedule of games will soon be posted to the LMHA’s website.