Especially at the end, it gets a little heated. It gets competitive when the scores are close. It’s always a blast.”<\/p>\n
More than a dozen Silvertips players came out for the 2025 edition of the game in November- a special chance to battle some of the NHL’s stars of tomorrow in a breakout season that saw the Blazers return to the WHL Playoffs.<\/p>\n
“It’s so much fun playing the Blazers at floorball; they made us compete very hard,” Silvertips player Shinji said. “I get to watch them every game, so playing together is a highlight for me.”<\/p>\n
“We look up to them, and it meant a lot to play with them and feel included,” Shinji’s teammate, Stuart, added. “They were kind and made us feel special.\u00a0 It was a really great day that we will always remember.”<\/p>\n
“Moments like this mean so much to our athletes \u2014 sharing the floor with their heroes builds confidence, joy, and a sense of belonging that stays with them long after the game ends.” Silvertips coach Genevieve said. “As coaches, it\u2019s incredibly rewarding to witness the smiles, excitement, and pride this experience brings.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re grateful to be able to share this special tradition together year after year.”<\/p>\n
Long promoted as the tournament capital of Canada, Kamloops has previously hosted the 2023 Special Olympics B.C. Winter Games, which saw roughly 500 athletes competing in eight events.<\/p>\n
Beyond floor hockey, many of the local Special Olympics athletes also take part in sports like softball, soccer, golf, swimming, bowling, basketball and rhythmic gymnastics.<\/p>\n
\n
The Western Hockey League strives to promote and foster a welcoming environment in communities close to our 23 clubs in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Every team has the creative freedom to allow their players and staff to work with the organizations and groups that they are most passionate about. The end goal is to create and maintain long-lasting relationships and ongoing partnerships within their community.<\/em><\/p>\n Through the McSweeney\u2019s WHL Community Collective, we aim to highlight these outstanding initiatives done by each club throughout the season.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s only one Silvertips team the Kamloops Blazers like to pal around with, and it’s certainly not the one based in Everett. For more than 20 years, the Blazers have had their annual autumn match against the Kamloops Silvertips Special Olympics ball hockey squad circled on the calendar. “We look forward to it every season,”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":36465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-36464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-440","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/07\/23111211\/KAMLOOPS-CC-1920.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36468,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36464\/revisions\/36468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":36462,"date":"2026-07-28T13:47:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/?p=36462"},"modified":"2026-07-28T13:47:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:47:04","slug":"four-whl-players-named-to-u-s-under-18-mens-select-team-for-2026-hlinka-gretzky-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blazers\/article\/four-whl-players-named-to-u-s-under-18-mens-select-team-for-2026-hlinka-gretzky-cup","title":{"rendered":"Four WHL players named to U.S. Under-18 Men’s Select Team for 2026 Hlinka Gretzky Cup"},"content":{"rendered":" Calgary, Alta. \u2013<\/strong> Four players signed to WHL Standard Player Agreements have been named to the roster for the U.S. Under-18 Men\u2019s Select Team, USA Hockey announced Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n The WHL will be represented by three forwards and one goaltender on the U.S. roster at the 2026 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which is scheduled for Monday, August 3, through Saturday, August 8, in Edmonton, Alta.<\/p>\n U.S. Under-18 Men\u2019s Select Team \u2013 WHL Players<\/strong><\/p>\n
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