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Oakdale Team Participated in International Hockey Tournament

The Pee Wee International Friendship Hockey Tournament focuses on connecting with others instead of a trophy.

Thirteen hockey teams from around the world invaded the Hudson Civic Center Ice Arena for the Pee Wee International Friendship Hockey Tournament this month. 

The tournament, which started in Japan in 1973, has a sole focus on friendship and cultural exchanges. Boys and girls ages 11-14 were brought together from the US, Australia, Denmark, Canada, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. 

Oakdale, St. Paul and Hudson, WI, were the only three cities that represented the US in the tournament this year. 

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Forty families within the Tartan area initially met with an interest in the tournament, said parent Lisa Staves. After a drawing was held, 20 children were chosen to represent Oakdale and the USA as the Tartan Titans. 

“It was a huge commitment, you have to have a parent home every day,” Staves said.  Staves, a teacher at Highwood Hills Elementary in St. Paul and one of the team managers for the Titans, said she was thrilled that her family was able to participate in the tournament. 

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This 10-day tournament, which concluded Friday, featured seventy-seven games, Olympic-style opening and closing ceremonies and a variety of gift exchanges among the players and parents alike.

“A huge part of the tournament is the trading, it’s all focused on friendship,” Staves said.

Players in the tournament were given a pin from each team that represented their country. By the end of the tournament, each player’s badge was dotted with pins from around the world. 

An on-ice gift exchange also took place before each game. The players gathered on the ice and swapped gifts such as hats, T-shirts, wallets, necklaces and hockey pucks, just to name a few.  The adults also participated in the exchange, trading team jerseys and sweatshirts. 

Each player from visiting countries was required to stay with a host family while their parents stayed in hotels in Hudson.   

“We had a unique and different experience of having the kids stay with us.  It has been great learning about their culture,” Staves said. 

The Staves family, who hosted two boys from New Zealand, Moses Bygate Smith and Gabe Calcutt, were responsible for transporting the kids to and from games and giving them an American experience.

Even though they were hard at work on the ice for 10 days, that didn’t stop them from showing the boys some Minnesota fun. 

“We went to Vali-Hi Drive-In, a Twins game, Valleyfair and Mall of America.  It felt like we were on vacation too, but that was just a part of all the fun,” Staves said. 

Smith said he bought a scooter and went to a skate park.

“Scooters are really popular in New Zealand and they are much cheaper here," he said.

Calcutt said he enjoyed Valleyfair.

“You have to travel by plane to go to an amusement park in my country,” Calcutt said.

According to Trey Staves, he has learned a lot from the tournament and his new friends.

“I got to play hockey with kids from all around the world; it was an unbelievable feeling. I also never would have gone to a skate park, it was cool doing things in my country that were new to me too,” he said.   

Trey said he plans to stay in touch with his New Zealand friends.  He is also hoping to participate in the next tournament, which will take place in Canada in two years. 

“This has been an amazing experience, better than I could have even imagined," Lisa Staves said. "It is going to be really hard to say goodbye to these boys."

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