Skaters aged 10 to 18 from 60 teams who have come from all over Ontario have unpacked their suitcases in Orillia hotels and are dining in at Orillia restaurants for this weekend’s 27th annual Jim Wilson Chevrolet Buick GMC Winter Classic hockey tournament.
Event organizer Mike Borrelli says the tournament is off to a great start.
“Competition is strong, the refereeing has been nothing but perfect, and we haven’t had any complaints,” he said.
Borrelli says many of the teams playing in this weekend’s tournament have returned to Orillia for several seasons, not including last year when the tournament was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The hotels always treat the players excellently, the restaurants offer nothing but hospitality, and I think it’s important for people to come and compete,” he said.
Borrelli says it makes him proud to organize the event each year on behalf of the Orillia Minor Hockey Association.
St. Louis Bar and Grill part-owner Shelby Tanzer says the restaurant brought in extra staff to cope with the high demand that the tournament brings.
“We brought in two extra servers for the day and evening. It’s tough to do it with most of our staff being part-time, filling that time is very hard to do,” she said.
Tanzer says St. Louis had their first busy Friday in a long time this weekend, and today they have four different team reservations throughout the day.
“We haven’t had tournaments in town or big events since we opened, so it’s different for us having to remember how we even manage it,” she said.
“After the almost last two years that we’ve had not being able to run a normal restaurant, we just put our tables back together and it’s almost weird seeing it. It’s really nice.”
Over at Kelseys, the Memorial Avenue restaurant is also busy with multiple reservations booked throughout the weekend.
“It’s been busy. It’s nice to get the juices flowing again. We are a little rusty with this sort of thing, but we are getting through,” said general manager Drew Muir.
“We are happy to have these kinds of events back in Orillia.”
Muir says the restaurant beefed up its staffing today to meet the high demands of the tournament.
“We’ve been chomping at the bit to get things back to normal and our staff is doing a great job with handling it,” Muir said.
Local hotels have also seen an economic boost from this weekend’s tournament. Fairfield By Marriott Inn & Suites general manager, Michelle Weber, says the West Ridge hotel is completely sold out.
“It’s great for the whole market because people are spending money here right now, they are shopping here, eating here, the whole local market benefits from it,” she said.
Weber says the hotel is thrilled to have groups of visitors from other communities back in Orillia. To keep up with the high demand the hotel has brought in extra staff.
“We want to make sure we are keeping our service levels up, we have high standards, and want to make sure our guests are feeling comfortable and safe in our hotel,” she said.
The hospitality may not extend to the ice. Borrelli says seven of the eight Terriers squads playing in the tournament are in contention to play in the finals tomorrow afternoon.
