Tavistock Minor Hockey celebrates two longtime volunteers

Paul Matresky, left, and Arnie Schwartzentruber, right, were honoured at last week’s Tavistock Minor Hockey volunteer banquet for their decades of service to the association. Lee Griffi photo

By Lee Griffi

It has become an annual event in Tavistock to hold a coaches and volunteer dinner at the end of a long hockey season, but this year’s event might just have held a bit more importance.

Two longtime executive members, Arnie Schwartzetuber and Paul Matresky, were honoured for their combined 70-plus years of service.

Schwartzentruber started coaching about 50 years ago in Tavistock, then decided to become an executive member, where he attended various league meetings and was the official Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) representative for decades.

He has seen a tremendous number of changes in minor hockey, but at this point, he doesn’t feel the sport is going in the right direction.

“The OMHA is great with saying ‘Hometown Hockey,’ but when you open the borders, kids are going and coming from all over the place. We lost local goalies this season at U11, U13 and U15 to play somewhere else. We had to bring in kids from elsewhere to fill the holes.”

Schwartzentruber added the OMHA, in his mind, wants any level of hockey below AAA, AA or A to become local league.

“Maybe the kids playing at the B level hockey aren’t as skilled, but they still play hard at their level and deserve to be recognized.”

Matresky, who has done just about everything there is to do at the association, including refereeing and being the treasurer, also doesn’t like the direction minor hockey is taking in the province and recalled a game where Tavistock hosted a team from Stirling about a dozen years ago for an OMHA Playdown game.

“I walked into the rink with a guy who asked what was going on at the school because there were so many cars. I said there was a hockey game going on, and he said there can’t be that many people in Tavistock to watch a minor hockey game.”

Matresky said they parted ways but met up with the gentleman at the end of the second period.

“He said when he refereed AAA in Guelph, the parents were the only ones watching, maybe about 30 people. Our barn was packed that day, and I said this is what small-town hockey is all about. This is a regular occurrence here.”

He added registration numbers in Tavistock are strong, and if kids leave, they leave.

“At the end of the day, a lot of kids who left here look back and realize they had it pretty good here.”

Matresky remembered a night timekeeping decades ago when Paul Kablfleisch, one of the town’s most talented players ever, was playing what was then called midget hockey when a referee asked him why the hell he was playing in a small town.

“I said he wants to play with his friends. That’s what it’s all about. Ninety per cent of the kids just want to play with their buddies and have fun.”

Matresky added the loss of the Additional Entry, or AE program, has also hurt players’ development in smaller centres.

“It was a stepping stone and a training ground for kids to move up to rep hockey. They’ve done away with that over the years, and I’m with Arnie, they have this idea that AAA is where it's at.”

He added another former executive member, Grant Hutcheson, said several years ago this is the end of minor hockey in Ontario.

“Unfortunately, he was right.”

Minor hockey president Brad Witzel said volunteers are the backbone of any non-profit organization.

“To run an organization of our size takes a lot of volunteers, so this is something we have been doing as long as I have been here. It’s a way to get everyone together to say thank you. We need coaches, trainers, managers and everyone behind the scenes to keep our operation going.”

Witzel added he and the rest of the hockey community are well aware of the efforts of longtime volunteers like Schwartzentruber and Matresky.

“That level of service and dedication is hard to replicate. It is getting harder and harder to find volunteers, so on one hand, we’re so lucky to have people like that, but we need to encourage the next generation to get involved.”

Witzel said the organization has volunteer recruitment on the radar, something that is not an easy proposition.

“People have less time to give back, but if you are in a position to, it’s very rewarding and we have a great group here.”

Tavistock Minor Hockey’s annual general meeting is set for Wednesday, May 6, which is a perfect opportunity for new volunteers to step up.

“Some are considering putting their hat in again while others may be moving on with where they are in their lives, but we are always looking for help, whether it's coaches, board members, or a dedicated parent committee doing our fundraising.”

One misconception is minor hockey organizations only offer volunteer positions to parents of players, something Witzel couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Arnie and Paul, their kids are long through the system. Paul has a grandchild now playing, so it’s come full circle for them, and we have a great group of coaches who are non-parents.”