Nanaimo's top street hockey team is hoping the community might be willing to help out some real beauties.
The Beautys won the Hockey Night in Canada Play On regional championship in their U17 division last month in Victoria and have been invited to compete at Play On nationals in Kingston, Ont. this summer.
The team placed second at regionals a year ago with an undermanned team, and decided it wanted to give it another go, said Jake Borserio, one of the players.
"This year we came into it thinking, maybe we can try to get first and go to nationals," he said. "We went down there and played our hardest and we came out first."
The Beautys – Borserio, Adam Taylor, Luke Gulka, Cyrus Adams and Haydn Sitler – defeated the Dekes of Hazzard by a 7-4 score in the final. The ball hockey games are played on a small court and contested in two 20-minute halves. The Beautys were a perfect 5-0 at the April 26-27 tourney.
The team got medals and pride for winning regionals, but it's up to them to fundraise their own way to nationals. They're hoping to gain sponsors, update their sharp-looking yellow T-shirts with logos, and fly out to Ontario to play on.
"It would mean a lot for us to go there and actually see how we do at nationals against other teams from across Canada," Borserio said. "I think we'd do pretty well, just based on our playmaking and our motivation to go play."
Anyone interested in helping the Beautys is asked to please call Anna at 250-722-7257 or Jake at 250-619-0165.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com