If you like ball hockey, you might want to head over to Calgary’s Max Bell Centre, where the ball hockey nationals are on. Men and women are battling it out in several divisions. It’s called the JACK Cup, and the hosts in the women’s female “A” division would love to win the hardware on home soil. Heather Berzins is Calgary United’s captain. Her sister Emily is an assistant captain. Emily is eight years older and got her younger sister into the sport. “We were a skeleton squad. There were maybe 10 of us, and she’s really good at ice hockey, so I said, ‘Hey, join me. Let’s do this together,’” Emily said. “And she was like, ‘Ball hockey. OK.’ She joined, and now she’s phenomenal.” Heather has been playing ball hockey since 2016 and says being on the same team as Emily is a dream come true. “We never got to play together growing up, so it’s nice to actually get the chance to compete with her and be with her at this level,” she said. “And any time we’re on the floor, when one of us scores, we usually run to each other first because, you know, sisters—family.” In this game, United was taking on the Saskatchewan Sabres, and the Calgary squad would come away with a hard-fought 7-4 victory. Ball hockey has come a long way, especially in the female divisions. All of the games at the nationals are very competitive. “You see different talent every time you come here,” said Kat Robinson. “Coming from my first nationals, there weren’t many teams, and now there’s lots and the competitiveness has just grown so much, and it’s amazing to see women’s sports thrive like this.” Hosting a national championship is special. It has a lot of meaning to Mackenzie Lausberg. “Last year, we were in Winnipeg and didn’t have as much home-crowd advantage. Even yesterday, you could see people with signs and yelling, so it’s super cool to be able to play at home,” she said. “This is also my midget triple-A ice hockey home arena, so it’s kind of cool to come back five years later and have a national tournament here and get to play at Max Bell again.”
