Wayne’s Road Hockey Warriors

NHL Stars post with tournament winners "Team Green"

By Ron Baldwin

What a fabulous day it was on Saturday July 13th as Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers invited a bunch of his NHL buddies to come to Scarborough Arena Gardens to participate in his second annual Wayne’s Road Hockey Warriors Ball Hockey Tournament and Celebrity Game.

I arrived at 8:30 am to meet a very friendly and enthusiastic organizing committee led by a remarkable young man named Brandon Sinclair. Brandon is a close friend of Wayne’s from childhood, and they grew up playing hockey together in Scarborough.

Brandon is a young entrepreneur who is very focused and sees the positive side of things.  As he saw his friend Wayne succeed with his hockey career, it got him thinking about the kids that couldn’t play because their parents unfortunately could not afford to pay for their kids to play hockey.

Raising money so kids can play

Hockey is a very expensive game to play at the minor level. The cost of registration, equipment and other expenses add up quickly and if your child has any success and moves up the talent ladder, then the cost can become unbearable for many parents.

Two year ago, Brandon and Wayne Simmonds put their heads together and Wayne’s Road Hockey Warriors was born. The goal this year was to raise $50,000 dollars for charity. They had all kinds of fundraising activities going on, so I hope they came close.

Xavier Henry with Joel Ward of the Washington Capitals

Kids met their heroes

I had a chance to get a friend’s child registered as one of the 64 kids who participated in this tournament and he had the time of his life.

Xavier was all smiles all day and he had a chance to hang out and talk with many of the NHL players who showed up. I’m sure the memories of this day will sit with him forever. He walked away with his Wayne’s Road Hockey Warriors T-shirt full of autographs, and he has some new hockey heroes to look up to now.

I had a chance to interview many of the players and was amazed how easy it was to talk to these guys about their own personal experiences growing up in the city of Toronto and elsewhere.

Wayne Simmonds with Joe Bowen

Many NHL’ers gave back

Wayne Simmonds was in constant demand from all of the media and children who were there and he also had duties to attend to such as autograph signings, endless interviews, playing in the celebrity game and also pulling names of the raffle winners

It must have been a very long day for him but he was always smiling and making himself available to whoever wanted to talk with him…which was everybody.

Local Scarborough boys Chris and Anthony Stewart were also present for the second year in a row. Both of these NHL players are big, imposing guys but also very nice and welcoming.  They were all smiles and laughing with the kids and you could tell they were in their element signing autographs, doing interviews with many different reporters, and getting their photos taken constantly.

Drew Doughty, Zac Rinaldo, Anthony Stewart and Chris Stewart

Smooth skating Stanley Cup winning defenseman Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings was also there for the second year in a row and he said he loves doing these kinds of events.

He grew up in London, Ontario and became good friends with Wayne when they were teammates on the Kings, where Simmonds started out.

Zac Rinaldo, Wayne’s teammate on the Philadelphia Flyers, was very friendly and easy to talk to. We talked about his growing up and playing all of his minor hockey and junior hockey in Hamilton, Ontario.

Hamilton has a reputation as a tough town and Zac fits right in as a hockey player. His favorite player growing up was Eric Lindros and he said he always wanted to be a Philadelphia Flyer.

Celebrity Game

Wayne's Road Hockey Warriors Celebrity Game

I also had a chance to speak with all of the other local NHL players who showed up to help out and play in the celebrity game.

The list included standout  corner man Joel Ward of the Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators prospect  Kevin Henderson, who scored his first NHL goal this year, former Canadian junior team player Devante Pelly-Smith who is in the Anaheim Ducks system and tough forward Mike Duco, a free agent who has played with the Florida Panthers and the Vancouver Canucks.

The tournament was a success with Team Green claiming victory in the end. All of the NHL players posed for a team picture with the champs after the final game.

The Charity game was exciting with Joe Bowen doing the play-by-play and it was a close game with a few quick goals near the end of the game.

It was scorching hot inside the arena but the guys ran hard and made some great plays and scored some pretty goals. The tournament organizer Brandon donned the pads for Team Black and kept it close, but in the end Simmonds’ team claimed the victory.

A fantastic ending to a lovely summer day in Birchcliff!

Thank you to all of those who volunteered their time, offered sponsorships and provided other services to the tournament.

You can watch a great video about the event by clicking here.