Inaugural Art Barry Cup to be awarded in west coast senior hockey league
A brand-new annual trophy named in honour of a western Newfoundland senior hockey pioneer will be handed out this weekend.
The Art Barry Cup will be awarded to the West Coast Senior Hockey League (WCSHL) team that finishes with the best record in the regular season.
Barry says having the award named after him came a surprise.
"It was a bit of a shock … I just thought it was a joke someone was pulling on me first, because I'm a bit of a jokester myself so I just thought someone was coming back at me," he told CBC's Newfoundland Morning.
"I can't say how much I appreciate this award … it's a great honour."
Barry is currently the president of the league's Stephenville Jets, but he's been involved in hockey for more than 60 years.
He began playing minor hockey in Corner Brook in 1955, and played senior hockey in Stephenville in the 1970s before retiring and getting involved in the administrative side of the game in 1980.
Barry was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Hockey Hall of Fame in 2013 as both athlete and builder.
When work began to establish the current senior hockey league on the west coast — and to bring a senior team back to Stephenville for the first time in about 20 years — Barry said he couldn't help but get involved.
"Hockey's in my blood, it has been all my life," he said.
"Hockey grows inside me and it's hard to give it up. When I retired, I said I wouldn't go back at it again, but some people talk you into it very easy, I guess. I'm glad it's going again and we've got hockey alive and back here, it's something that Stephenville needed, and something that some of the other towns needed again."
The new Stephenville Jets became one of the founding teams when the WCSHL launched in March 2017 but since then, the league has seen its fair share of challenges.
"It's a struggle … we had a four team league and we're down to a three team league right now, but we need to keep this competitive," said Barry.
"If it's not competitive, it won't last and hopefully that's going to happen."
He said fewer kids are committing to playing hockey, but he's hopeful that the league will be able to continue with local talent, rather than players brought in from outside the province.
"Nothing against players from the mainland, they provided some good hockey for us here over the years, but you just can't afford that anymore," Barry said.
"There's some mistakes you're going to make when you're starting a league like this, but you've got to be smart enough not to let it over come you."
While the Art Barry Cup will be handed out on Sunday, playoffs are continuing for the Cliff Gorman Memorial Cup for the league championship.
With files from Newfoundland Morning
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