Since 2019, the Royals Ball hockey club has grown in influence and popularity throughout the Brantford community.
Adam Barkman, the Royals head coach and general manager, discussed the beginnings of the club.
“We started out back in 2019 as being the official representation of BHI Brantford (Ball Hockey International) for the OBHA (Ontario Ball Hockey Association) provincials that year. I was part of that coaching team and helped organize the team…at the end of that tournament, the BHi Brantford decided to pull the plug on the rep team as they wanted to focus on the house league where they made their money,” he said. “Unfortunately, these kids were left hanging…[and] when you’re invested in something like this…seeing how much the kids got out of competing in these tournaments, was definitely a motivator…so we didn’t want to leave them without that fun of tournament play, so I kind of picked it up for them.”
Since then, the club has continued to grow across age-groups with an emphasis on sportsmanship.
“We then reorganized [and] got our new team colors…but, decided to keep the name for continuity and now we’re entering our sixth season. We have…divisions from kids [born in] 2017 to kids [born in] 2006 [and] we’re now getting adult teams as well. We’ve built divisions for everyone over the years, “he said. “I’ve always enjoyed playing sports [and] part of the idea of the Royals was to focus on several things that were important to me. The first one was obviously just having fun…the love of the game [and] the joy of tournament play…the second is just promoting physical health and fitness [and] getting children outdoors, away from screens [especially] during COVID…and then the third has been to emphasize character development, or virtues development. I think sports, and in this case ball hockey, allows us to develop the virtues of friendliness and a sportsmanship-like behavior towards not only your teammates, but towards other teams and officials.”
Barkman then noted another pivotal virtue that the club tries to focus on.
“Loyalty is a virtue that’s rarely emphasized nowadays…we want to teach our players it’s important stick with a team through thick and thin…and to not just jump to another team, for example, in Cambridge or Paris…it’s tough to lose and in the early years, we weren’t winning much…but, there were kids that stuck with us, and we’ve kind of exploded now [winning] around 17 championships last year…but to see what the [program] has done in helping develop youth in Brantford…is something I feel that is worth my time and energy,” he stated.
However, the success has been throughout age-groups on the Royals, across local and provincial tournaments.
“All of our divisions have done well [and] these championships are at various levels…we have [participated in many] outdoor ball hockey tournaments in places like Niagara and Hamilton [and] even local ones like the Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament. There have been a whole host of different tournaments, from three-on-three, four-on-four and five- on-fives…So, we’ve had reasonable success in virtually every tournament we have gone to,” he noted. “In our last two tournaments we went to…one in Hamilton and one in Fonthill…we swept everything both times [and] that was fun to see. And the team that probably is the most successful right now is our 2013/2014 team. We went second in the province, and most recently, we beat Team Quebec, right here in Brantford at the Young Gun’s tournament.”
Nevertheless, as the club continues to grow in popularity, Barkman has to manage issues that pop up.
“Right now, we have 120 people involved with us [and there are] so many different personalities, so many different family backgrounds, [and] so many different people wanting to play for different reasons. It’s just trying to moderate the chaos, and hopefully people understand what we’re doing,” he said. “You never get everyone happy about everything…there’s sort of debates about play time. It’s not a house league, so you can’t just play everyone the same number of minutes, necessarily, but you want to promote certain types of qualities like fairness, while also striving for excellence. So, that’s challenging…to sometimes communicate that to the kids and the parents. It’s not always an easy thing to do.”
That has led to some players leaving the Royals club to create their own teams.
“We’ve had people that have left…and I think there’s probably about four different rep teams that have emerged from the Royals over the years. They had their own ideas of how they wanted to run things or how they wanted to play. It happens, but for the most part we’ve only added to our teams and divisions, and we have a very loyal core group now, so it’s great,” he noted.
Along with running the Royals, Barkman is also a professor of philosophy, and has been focused on developing more opportunities for older players to continue with the club.
“I think the provincials for youth now goes up to 2007 [birth year] so a lot of these kids are now moving on. They will perhaps find adult/co-ed teams or simply stop playing. They still love the Royals…and for some of these kids, they’ve identified with the program…in some cases playing for the club for six years…and they see themselves as a royal for life, so to speak…so, we’re looking at possibly putting together some men’s and women’s teams, [as] I want them to have these opportunities to continue playing,” he explained.
Barkman is also looking into exploring opportunities to play internationally.
“I’ve helped with building team Canada with the OBHA [and] the Royals are pretty important part of some of those junior teams…I [also] have contacts with the people from the United States and from Team USA [and] we’re looking at seeing how the Royals can figure into international play,” he stated. “Going to play in Europe…would [incur] heavy financial costs for our players…so, I’m exploring the opportunities of playing across the border in places like Buffalo and Pittsburgh…and seeing how manageable that all would be.”
Nevertheless, for Barkman, it all comes down to how a sport like ball hockey has a deeper effect on the community and its players.
“The Royals are here to serve the community…we want to do something positive for the players, families, and volunteers in terms of promoting more of a positive experience including health and outdoor activity and developing some civic virtues that I think are often lacking in sports,” he said. “As one who teaches ethics…I don’t want to be just teaching abstract philosophy in a class. I want philosophy to be a way of life [and] I feel like if it doesn’t lead to a sort of positive transformation, then it’s a kind of useless thing. I think most people…are playing just for fun or just to get physical. But there are always some who want to become better men and women as a result of playing a sport. And that for me is particularly rewarding.”
