Youth Hockey: International Ice Hockey Returns to Singapore

Text and photos  by Mark Cranley, Ice Hockey Commissioner

Singapore 2011 Youth Invitational Ice Hockey Tournament

Singapore will once again play host to an international ice hockey tournament when the Youth Invitational Ice Hockey Tournament returns to the cozy confines of the Kallang Leisure Park. The organizers are hoping to attract 300 ice hockey players ranging in age from 4 to 16. The teams that have been invited are Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Philippines, Bangkok, Dubai, Taiwan and Malaysia.

It has been over 4 years since we last held an international tournament here in Singapore. The last one, being a combination of both youth and adult leagues, was extremely well attended and was great free entertainment for the general public visiting Fuji Ice Palace.  We hope to outdo ourselves this time around and top the attendence marks set by the previous tournament.

Ice hockey is growing at a tremendous rate in Asia.  In Hong Kong there are four ice rinks and over 1,500 registered ice hockey players – both male and female. In Singapore, we have over 130 children playing and our numbers are constrained only by the amount of available ice time. With Singapore planning to open an Olympic size ice rink at JCube in Jurong later this year, we can expect a big boost to the sport of hockey, figure skating and speed skating.


The Singapore Ice Dragons, the brain child of a group dedicated Dads from the Canadian Association who hoped a posting to the equator wouldn’t prevent their kids from being a part of the Canadian national past time, was born in 2001. The program started with about 60 children under the age of 12 practicing once a week.  By November 2003, the Ice Dragons had reached critical mass and were able to begin league play.  The spirit of competition and the true love of the game was obvious from the start with a focus on sportsmanship, fair play and team togetherness.

Gradually the program expanded and more ice time was provided. Soon little Bambis were wobbling on the ice from the age of 5. The historical hockey strong-holds of Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden and Finland were well represented, but we were also attracting players from South Africa, Korea, Australia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scotland and of course Singapore.  By 2007, we had close to 150 die hard players and the league had grown from one to two, and then three divisions.

We have now formed a strong partnership with Kallang Leisure Park and Kallang Ice World. They have provided us with additional ice time and with this we can foresee our program growing back up to the numbers we had in 2007.

Ice hockey is an official NSA here in Singapore, so keep an eye open for the tournament dates and come on down and watch the fastest sport on Earth.