<\/p>\n
The Winter Olympics are underway in Milan and Cortina, but Italy isn\u2019t the only place celebrating winter sports. Young female hockey players from all around the country are right here in Erie for the Sarah Backstrom Memorial Tournament.<\/p>\n
The Sarah Backstrom Memorial Tournament is back for its 32nd year, welcoming more than 90 teams and over 1,600 athletes to Erie Insurance Arena, the Flo Fabrizio Ice Center, and the Mercyhurst Ice Center.<\/p>\n
Matches run from early morning through late evening, with age groups ranging from 10U to 19U \u2014 all showcasing the growing visibility of women\u2019s hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese women and these girls that play hockey, you know, they just don\u2019t get recognized the way they should.\u201d explained Amy Work, who works for Lake Effect Hockey<\/p>\n
The tournament honors Sarah Backstrom, a former Erie Lady Lion who passed away from leukemia in 1999. What began as a small local event has grown into a national platform for girls\u2019 hockey \u2014 while also giving back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so important to realize that this is not just hockey. It goes way deeper than that. And to remember all the lives lost to cancer\u2026 this is very important to everyone. I think everybody here knows what we\u2019re doing is so important \u2014 to keep going and to keep doing this.\u201d said Eva, a hockey player from Philadelphia<\/p>\n
A portion of the proceeds again benefits the Mario Lemieux Foundation, supporting pediatric leukemia research and awareness.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrganizers say this has become one of the biggest hockey events in the country, all while celebrating the legacy of Sarah.\u201d Stephanie Logue explained<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah had a huge part in hockey and such a love for the game that it\u2019s so important everyone remembers who Sarah was, and the heart she had on and off the ice.\u201d said Amy.<\/p>\n
Tournaments like this continue to make a positive impact on future generations \u2014 all while ensuring Sarah\u2019s influence on the sport is never forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Winter Olympics are underway in Milan and Cortina, but Italy isn\u2019t the only place celebrating winter sports.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,51010,51969,51968,33954],"class_list":["post-108210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-girls-hockey","tag-memorial-tournament","tag-sarah-backstrom","tag-youth-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}