Sports

Second Annual Howe Brothers Boot Hockey Tournament is Saturday

Proceeds/benefits of the tournament will go to the Josh Gunderson Memorial Fund.

The second annual Howe Brothers Boot Hockey Tournament is going down this weekend.

The tournament will happen at Nick Howe’s house—just north of Stillwater—on Saturday, Feb. 2, starting at 9 a.m. Proceeds/benefits of the tournament will go to the Josh Gunderson Memorial Fund.

“Last year was a blast and this year should be much bigger,” tournament director and childhood friend of the Howe's, Chris Ryberg said. “We had over 60 people play last year plus a bunch of spectators—lots of ex-Ponies, in fact almost exclusively Stillwater guys.”

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Our Rink Story

With a last name like “Howe” skating is bound to be in the family and with a desire to promote Pony Hockey in the community, creating a place for kids to become true Rink Rats seemed to be a great idea.  Passion soon turned into an obsession with building this backyard hockey rink. 

Growing up in Stillwater with a rink in their back yard, skating and hockey became a vital part of brothers Mark, Matt and Nick’s lives at an early age.

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Grown and married, the next generation now looks like it will enjoy the same benefits of a backyard rink and long days of pond hockey….plus. Photographs tell the story…. beginning with disassembling and hauling an old outdoor city hockey rink from a nearby town to the hard labor of assembling it once again in Nick and Sarah Howe’s backyard north of Stillwater. The rink started with a great concrete slab poured by Nick (Nick Howe's Concrete), also great for a year-round sport court and has the addition of a new warming house for the season a converted garage, music, lighting on posts for evening skating, and best of all a Zamboni artfully created using a golf cart, water barrel and piping with holes for even surfacing of ice. This place breeds “old-time hockey”.

Cooper (age 6) Addy (age 4) Joe (age 4) and Jax (age 1),  all Howes are now skating to their hearts content; along with their moms, dads, uncles, aunts, grandmas and grandpas, neighbors and friends (many who helped with the construction of this rink). If you ask any of the little ones they’ll tell you they plan to be the next great “Howe” on ice."

-- Submitted by Mark, Matt and Nick Howe, of Stillwater.


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