Mexican national hockey team to play 3 CHL pro teams for first time
Mexico has a hockey team? Who knew? Apparently, Canada’s national pasttime is extremely popular south of the border. Hmm…it must be all that time Mexican children spend playing shinny on frozen ponds in Jalisco state, eh?
HIDALGO, Texas (AP) - The unlikely hockey hotbed of South Texas will be the site of some historic games this weekend as the Mexican national team will play U.S. professional teams for the first time.
The Mexicans will take on minor league teams in Hidalgo on Friday, Corpus Christi on Saturday, and Laredo on Sunday. The games are the latest sign of the hockey craze along the border, where the ongoing NHL lockout is a world away….
Hockey is also booming south of the U.S. border, where soccer and baseball have long been the favoured sports.
Mexico coach Joaquin De La Garma, who helped launch the national team in 1992, said nine new hockey rinks have since opened and there are now about 1,000 players in Mexico.
“We are growing quickly,” he said.
De La Garma, a former Olympic rower and longtime hockey aficionado, said the team has come a long way since losing every game in its first international tournament in 1997. Last year the team won bronze in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Division 3 world championship, the lowest level of international play.
De La Garma said the Mexicans expect quite a challenge from the South Texas teams, which play in the Central Hockey League and are made up mostly of Canadian, Midwestern and European players.
“It will be a great experience to play here,” he said. “It’s preparation for the world championship.”
Mexico City is hosting the 2005 Division 3 world championship.
Right; where they will no doubt compete with the likes of burgeoning world hockey powers such as Costa Rica, the Phillipines, and Brunei. Game on, si??
Silly me; until now, I’d though the only place you’d ever find ice in Mexico would have been in a blender with Triple Sec and Jose Cuervo. Ah, I can hear the mellifluous tones of Andres Cantor now:
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!
