Whether or not it ends up as a world record, an upcoming street hockey game is bound to be Nanaimo’s highest-scoring game ever.
The Save-On-Foods Longest Street Hockey Game faces off this Friday (June 29) at the Nanaimo Curling Centre on Wall Street.
To earn a place in the book of Guinness World Records, 40 street hockey players are going to need to go non-stop for 105 hours, 17 minutes.
“We’ve been holding practices for about a month and a half, but the big training is going to be mentally,” said Tali Campbell, event organizer.
The two teams – one representing University Village mall and the other representing CUPE B.C. – will face off at 3 a.m. early Friday morning. And then there are no more faceoffs.
“There is no stoppage once a goal’s scored. Seven seconds and the ball’s back in play and you continue,” Campbell said. “Guinness is very strict in their rules. I’d say about 50 pages of rules and there is no leeway.”
It will be a challenge to meet the criteria, especially at the end of a long shift. Campbell said the plan is for the teams to play two-hour shifts during the daytime and four-hour shifts at night.
“It has to be a fast-paced game. It can’t be just people walking, passing the ball,” he said.
Players are also required to stay on-site the whole time, so they will have to eat and sleep at the curling centre.
Guinness won’t have representatives on hand; Campbell will have to collect witnesss statements, security camera footage and newspaper articles to prove the record is legitimate.
Anyone is welcome to watch, but there won’t be bleachers set up so people should bring lawn chairs or a blanket. Spectators are encouraged to make a charitable donation, as Campbell's Youth Sticking Together organization hopes to raise funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Vancouver Island, Crimson Coast Dance Society and the Nanaimo Ball Hockey League.
As for the world record, said Campbell, it's important to the players.
“It’s huge for them, it’s going to be huge for our community and it’s going to be a sigh of relief once that’s all done,” he said.
He thinks the record attempt is realistic; in fact the event's start time was set for 3 a.m. so that the record could theoretically be broken in "prime news time" at about 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday (July 3).
"I've been called crazy, but anything is possible as long as you set your mind to it," he said.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com