Hopes for a special 40th anniversary

Next year the Battle of the Little Big Puck turns 40.
Dale Mosquito, who played in the first game in 1979 and has become one of the faces of the event, would love to mark the milestone in a special way.
He has a bold idea that might raise a few eyebrows: How about holding the game in the rodeo grounds?
If the February weather objects, then the Maple Creek Community Arena will be the fallback option.
“The 40th year – what an anniversary,” he says. “40 years is a milestone for us here in the southwest corner of the province. Let’s celebrate, let’s go outside.”
He adds: “We have a year to plan for the anniversary. Right now the idea of holding it outside is just conceptual. It’s an idea in the back of my head.
“I’m thinking it would be great to hold the event by the rodeo grounds, which are town-owned. Traditionally, the Battle of the Little Big Puck is in the third week in February. If it rains or snows, we can always come back to this place (Maple Creek arena).
“We have a lot of stakeholders that help put this game together. It’s not going to be one organization or one group of people who do it all.”
Mosquito saw an outside spectacle as something special that would make Maple Creek a “cut above the rest”.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
Mosquito spoke shortly after coming off the ice on Friday.
“What a night,” he said. “It was intense.”
He believed that the community needed the event, even in the midst of a snowstorm and pandemic.
“The storm couldn’t match what the people wanted. We could have delayed the game, but no, we knew people wanted to get together. We knew this game had to happen.”
What makes the event so unique?
“The electricity, the dynamics of our southwest corner of the province – we have a resource that is unlike any other resource around, and that’s the human resource.”

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