JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — McFall Brothers Hockey is presenting the inaugural “Sticks in the Middle” mini tournament at Northwest Arena on Aug. 28-30.

Sticks in the Middle is a traditional way hockey players can evenly choose pickup teams to play games during a drop-in or skate-and-shoot situation.

“I thought about it during COVID,” Tom McFall said about starting a local hockey tournament. “It was an idea that I had back then to just get the guys and girls back on the ice and playing hockey, but it never came to fruition. Then I played in a tournament with a group of guys out of Rochester in March. This is a concept that they used in which they get a group of players together, register 60 guys or so and do a draft. It’s a division within a regular tournament that they kind of run and I said I could do something like that.”

Players will register as individuals and then attend a draft party. All registered players will have graded themselves while a small committee will also evaluate each player. Their names will then be written on mini hockey sticks, which will be used to randomly choose the four teams to play in the weekend tournament. For example, “A” level players will be spread out among the teams, then “B” players, then “C” players to make four balanced teams. There will be a special prize for the last player chosen for the tournament, akin to Mr. Irrelevant at the NFL draft. The date, time and location for the draft party has yet to be determined.

Goalies will be rotated among the four teams. If more than four goalies sign up, adjustments will be made.

“It’s been great, I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback,” McFall said about the tournament’s progress. “I put it on Facebook and I’ve got some guys from Bradford area, Olean area, mostly Jamestown, and a couple guys from Fredonia. I’m about 3/4ths full and looking for about 15 more players or so.”

The schedule will include two round-robin games Friday night, four round-robin games Saturday and two more round-robin games Sunday. The top two teams based on a points-per-period format will advance to the championship game with the bottom two teams playing for third place.

“There are a bunch of us that skate all year-round, but probably a majority of players once the winter league ends in March they don’t pick their skates up again until September,” McFall added. “I’m looking at this as a good way to get the rust off the blades and get back on the ice a little bit sooner and be ready to play for the winter league.”

The purpose of the tournament is to play more hockey, play with different players than regular-season leagues and raise money for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo.

“The idea of running a hockey tournament to give back to the community is something I’ve had in the back of my mind for several years,” McFall stated. “This year with my daughter developing preeclampsia with her baby and having the baby at 27 weeks made me really think I want to do something now to give back. I want to make this a yearly thing, so this year’s benefactor that I’m looking at is the Sisters of Charity NICU section of the hospital because of the treatment and everything went so well.”

The cost for the tournament will be $80 per player. Each player will also be required to sell 10 50/50 tickets for the fundraiser.

“That’s the most important thing to me,” McFall said about playing for a cause. “When I finished up my college career I remember one of my teammate’s dad said that now you’re done playing competitively, now you’ve got to give back. Now we can give back to the game that has given us so much and that’s one of the reasons I still keep doing camps and clinics. I love the game of hockey and I want to give back to it and I thought a tournament like this I can get a few bucks to help the premature babies and the families at NICU. It’s a no-brainer for me to try and organize something like this and get it off the ground.”

Players are asked to visit www.mcfallbrothershockey.com to sign up. For more information, contact Tom McFall or the McFall Brothers Hockey page on Facebook.

“We’re also open to a few sponsors to help offset some of the costs so we can make a bigger donation to the cause,” McFall added.