Against all odds, Ukrainian hockey team hopes to make it to Quebec City peewee tournament | 24CA News

Quebec City’s Sean Bérubé has spent dozens of hours over the previous three months serving to a Ukrainian hockey staff.

It all began again in March 2022, not lengthy after the Russian invasion.

At the time, Bérubé, who performed hockey in Ukraine for 4 years within the 90s, was again there attempting to get his former coach in another country.

With the assistance of an previous teammate, Yevhenii Pysarenko, Bérubé managed to get the coach and his household out of Ukraine and to Quebec — the place they’ve been staying with him.

To thank Pysarenko for his help, Bérubé provided to purchase him a beer.

Instead, he says Pysarenko requested for a barely larger favour — help in getting a Ukrainian hockey staff to Canada for the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament.

“I kind of joked it off and I said if you want to bring a team, it’s going to have to be a team of refugees,” recalled Bérubé.

“I didn’t think he was that serious … but I think the project grew in him and at some point he started to organize camps over there during the summer just for Ukrainians.”

Three months in the past, the dream began to return true when the event licensed the Ukrainian staff’s participation.

Since then it has been a rush of paperwork, visa purposes and getting parental consent for a bunch of 17 Ukrainian 12-year-old boys who’re scattered throughout Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany and Canada.

Dreaming of enjoying in Canada

Pysarenko first had the concept of forming a hockey staff when the conflict broke out in Ukraine in February 2022.

“I tried to help as much as possible, kids and former colleagues,” mentioned Pysarenko. “That gave me an idea to bring them together to play some tournaments.”

Pysarenko had his sights set particularly on Quebec City’s peewee event, an internationally famend competitors he participated in as a participant a long time in the past.

He slowly started to search out gamers by his personal contacts and proposals from different coaches.

With the youngsters scattered across the globe, some nonetheless in Ukraine and a few in surrounding international locations resembling Poland and the Czech Republic, practising was a problem.

Two weeks in the past they held a tryout and coaching session in Romania. He says there’s pleasure among the many boys, who could have one other apply on Jan. 28.

“Any hockey kids, they dream to play in Canada and everybody knows about the [Quebec] peewee tournament in Ukraine. They want to show Ukraine is a strong country,” says Pysarenko.

“They will go to Canada and show to everybody that we still play hockey. It’s like a miracle.”

‘Thank God we had hockey’

Bérubé notes that if the boys do make it to the event, it might be much less about successful and extra about having fun with the chance.

“It’s about being there for the experience … To get out of the war and live this experience,” mentioned Bérubé, who’s the staff’s consultant with Immigration Canada.

He says when youngsters expertise tragedy, it is essential for them to have an outlet and issues to stay up for. Bérubé is aware of that first-hand. His sons misplaced their mother in August.

“I believe in sport therapy and I have seen it with my two sons … for them to get back to the arena after what happened with their mother,” mentioned Bérubé. “Thank God we had hockey.”

The Ukrainian gamers are coping with a novel set of challenges, mentioned Bérubé. Just not too long ago, he heard that one of many gamers’ fathers died whereas serving within the army. Other youngsters’ households do not have electrical energy, complicating the visa software and paperwork course of.

“I’ve asked all the parents to send me pictures of their birth certificate, all their passports, all the information and basically I don’t know how many hours I must have spent. Like 50-plus hours,” estimated Berube.

Tournament employees ‘speaking day-after-day with Immigration Canada’

Patrick Dom, basic supervisor of the peewee event, is assured issues will work out.

“We are still in the process of getting the visas for all the kids and the adults but, you know, we’re talking every day with Immigration Canada and we hope that all the visas are going to be delivered soon,” mentioned Dom. “It’s a long process but we are very confident to get the team here.”

Dom notes that if the visas come by in time for the February event, the Ukrainians might be billeted in native houses and welcomed with open arms.

“The first time when they will get here on the ice, we just want to get the Videotron centre here in Quebec City full, packed of people to show them how much we love them,” mentioned Dom. “We stand with them.”