My son, like any other
boy playing minor hockey in Kamloops
looks forward to the opportunity to playing KIBIHT.
One of their first dreams is to play in that tournament.
As a child, I can remember playing in the tournament,
I can remember coming to the rinks and
watching the games all the time and it's part of the
Tournament Capital. There's a lot of history with KIBIHT in Kamloops.
We're here for the hockey, but
really, our takeaway back home was hospitality.
Genuine hospitality.
When you look for it, it's here; it's everywhere
but we just have to pause and look.
I think it's great, the fact that they got so many
teams and so many good players. I think the competition
level is very high and I love playing
tournaments where you can have
kids who are better than you, bigger than you and you always get to
challenge yourself.
The history of KIBIHT in the community
it was started up by a group
of people, volunteers all of them
that decided they wanted to have
the best bantam teams in the country and
eventually, internationally
to show them what Kamloops was all about.
It's a lot of fun out here. I got to play a lot of hockey, good teams.
We got to play Hungary - that was awesome.
I was proud for the guy because
it's a big thing to sing the national anthem
in front of a lot of people.
A sense of selflessness, putting others first,
getting along with diversity,
adapting to wins or losses,
just overcoming things.
KIBIHT to me is one of the greatest
bantam hockey tournaments in the world.
When people think of KIBIHT, they think of Kamloops and I
think people look forward to this tournament.
It's known across the country, people want to come here
and they travel around the world and people have heard of this tournament.
I think it's a great organization, a lot of good teams here
and it's really exciting how they provide all the stuff for us,
it's good.
A lot of elite teams and a lot of experiences you'd never have
in a regular old tournament.
We went all over Western Canada and Alaska and up north and
this was the flag ship. This was
the one that's on the calendar for a lot of teams.
I think KIBIHT for the community
it really brings that awareness
around us being Canada's Tournament Capital.
It's such a long-running tournament, such a well-respected tournament
that people really identify with it
and very much understand what it is.
You have to play tough,
don't play by your size -
it's in the heart.
There's lots of competition and great teams.
There's so much excitement and feeling of scoring or stopping
a goal, it's great.
This is such a nice place and
it's unbelievable to be here.
I think all we have to do is look at some of the names
who have gone through KIBIHT: Dino Ciccarelli,
Mario Lemieux, Dion Phaneuf,
they've all played in KIBIHT before going to the NHL.
But in the end, I want him to learn that concept of friendship,
the friendships you form along the way.
In the end, if they come away with this experience,
coming here is some place special,
the experience of Kamloops and it's really
the interactions of folks within the community.
I'm trying to show them to open your eyes,
open your heart,
and when you do that, wonderful things happen.
