This weekend is a weekend full of state championships in New York and the Batavia High School Blue Devils are not the only team that will have the chance to compete for a state title. Genesee Amatuer Hockey Associaton (GAHA) will be host to the 16-U New York State Championships for USA hockey will be held at the Falleti Ice Arena in an eight team tournament to decide who is the best of the best this season. Teams have traveled from all over including Alex Bay, Louisville, Saranac Lake, Bear Mountain and Center State. These teams all finished within the top 2 seeds of the divisions that they played in throughout the season, with Louisville being a favorite to take the title. "There are a lot of good teams coming here this weekend and it's gonna be some good hockey" said tournament director Tom Aldinger. "Anything can happen in a tournament like this".
Since Batavia was awarded the bid to host the tournament, the 16-U Ramparts team, who did not qualify for states this season based on their record, will receive a free entry into the tournament and a chance to prove that they are the best in the state. Two other Western New York teams, Jamestown and Niagara will also be competing in the tournament.
Batavia is set to play thier first game today (Friday) at 1:00pm against Saranac Lake. The rest of their schedule includes playing Jamestown tomorrow morning at 8:00am and Bear Mountain tomorrow at 4:00pm.
The tournament has games from 9am-9pm today and 8am-8pm tomorrow. Sunday is set for the semi final games at 11am and 1pm with the NYS championship game set for 5pm Sunday night. Admission to the games is only $5 per game or you can get a weekend pass to all the games for only $10. TF Brown's is a partial sponsor of the tournament.
