Zalepa to officiate at 2nd annual James Berg hockey tournament

Organizers of the second annual James Berg Memorial Hockey Tournament, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 23 at the arenas in Virgil, wanted to do something to make this year’s event even more special.  

So Matt Friesen suggested to his cousins Mackenzie, Madison and Mitchell Berg, the children of the late James Berg for whom the tournament is named, that it would be great to have Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa dust off his old referee jersey to officiate a game or two. 

“We were reaching out to refs,” an ebullient Madison says, “and apparently he remembered seeing the Lord Mayor reffing once in his past life. So he shot an email out to him and he responded. We wanted him to ref the final but he has a Christmas gathering later that day, so he agreed to do the two semi-final games.”

Zalepa says he hardly hesitated to accept the invitation. 

“I let them know it’s been quite some time since I’ve been on the ice that way,” laughs Zalepa. “I think the last time was in 2012. They needed to know what they were getting into. That didn’t seem to scare them away though. I’m really looking forward to it.”

The fact that it is a community event, a gathering of mostly locals who played and coached in the Niagara-on-the-Lake Wolves Minor Hockey Association, sealed the deal for the Lord Mayor. And he also remembers James Berg, the former president of the Wolves organization who died suddenly in December, 2021 at 53 years old, as a big booster to the community.

“It’s a great community event,first of all,” Zalepa says, “and it recognizes someone who did a lot for minor hockey and minor sports in general. I knew him through hockey, that’s why it’s so nice that they asked me to do this, I really appreciate the request.”

Last year’s first James Berg tournament was held on Friday, December 23, the day a massive snowstorm shut down all of Niagara. Eight teams hit the ice early that morning while the snow accumulated outside. 

“We actually had the police here at one point,” Madison recalls. “They showed up and said ‘why are you here, everything is closed?’. We told them we had special permission to be here. Then they asked if they could come in and use the bathroom because everything was closed. They couldn’t even stop at a Tim Horton’s.”

Last year’s tournament raised $5,500 through entry fees, concession sales and donations. 

In August, the Berg family presented a cheque for $4,500 to the Wolves and awarded 18-year-old Sam Walker, a member of last year’s U18 Wolves rep team who won silver in the Niagara District Hockey League, the very first James Berg Memorial Scholarship of $1,000. 

Walker was one of four applicants for the scholarship. He is in his first year at the University of Guelph studying marine and freshwater biology. Applications for this year's scholarship will be available on the Wolves website (https://notlhockey.com/) some time in the new year. 

This year, weather permitting, a barbecue will be added to the mix and a raffle table will also help to raise funds. 

“We’re doing the scholarship again this year,” says Madison. “It’s on a Saturday this time and hopefully there’s no snowstorm, so more people can come out and watch the games. We hope to raise even more for minor hockey.”

She adds that the tournament has become extremely popular in just a short time.

“We had to turn down four teams this year starting in September,” says Madison. “We hope that next year we might be able to grow the tournament to include more teams. It will depend on whether or not we can get more ice time.”

As for Zalepa, he says he donned his zebra shirt last week and he assures The Local that it actually fits quite well, perhaps even better than it did 11 years ago.  

“I hope they take it easy on me, though,” laughs the Lord Mayor, who will officiate in games scheduled for 1:40 and 2:40 pm. “I’m going to rely on the other official quite a bit. And I haven’t skated since last Christmas. I hope they don’t regret asking me to do this.”