Blind hockey tourney founder Mark DeMontis to be honoured in Toronto
The world's largest blind hockey tournament returns to Toronto this weekend for its 11th edition and founder Mark DeMontis will be honoured during Friday's opening ceremonies.
The 2025 Canadian National Blind Hockey Tournament presented by CNIB Foundation takes place Friday to Sunday at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, formerly Maple Leaf Gardens, and will be the largest blind hockey event of all time with 190 players competing – a 19% growth from last year's previous record.
The Hockey Hall of Fame will be bringing the prestigious NHL Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award to celebrate the reigning winner – Toronto native and tournament founder DeMontis.
This will be the first time DeMontis has had the opportunity to celebrate winning an NHL Award with the entire Blind Hockey community, as well as 2,000 elementary students from across the TDSB and the TCDSB who will be on hand to witness the best Blind Hockey players on the planet go head-to-head during this special schools-only invitational game.
'The most gratifying thing has been seeing the impact, first-hand, especially with youngsters and their families,' DeMontis said in a statement. 'It's always been a goal of mine to show blind or partially sighted youth across the country, and around the world for that matter, that Blind Hockey not only existed, but that they could participate in the game despite their disability.'
NHL awards Toronto blind hockey player Mark DeMontis
ON THE ROLL AGAIN: Blind hockey players to blade across Ontario
The tournament will involve 24 games played across seven divisions that include children, youth, girls and women, low vision and development, open, select, and, for the first-time ever, a masters series.
'This tournament is an annual celebration of how much Canadian Blind Hockey and the Para sport has grown over the past 15 years,' Executive Director Matt Morrow said in a statement.
'This tournament only had 45 players and one division in its first year in 2013, and this year we have more than four times that many players and seven divisions for all ages and skill levels showing that Blind Hockey is for everyone!'
Players will be representing every province in Canada, as well as the United States, Finland and England.
The tournament is free and open to the public with all games streamed live on the Canadian Blind Hockey YouTube channel.
The full tournament schedule is available at canadianblindhockey.com.
jstevenson@postmedia.com
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