Snoopy’s Senior World Hockey Tournament begins Friday

The Sonoma County Winos. Phoenix Phossils. California Antiques. Seattle Seniles. Connecticut Olde Crabs. Victoria Ol’ Pluckers.

Don’t let the wacky team names fool you. These guys are serious about ice hockey.

More than 1,000 players from age 40 to double that are converging on Santa Rosa this week from throughout North America for the 40th annual Snoopy’s Senior World Hockey Tournament.

Beginning Friday night, 68 teams will play 102 games over nine days at Snoopy’s Home Ice, the Redwood Empire Ice Arena on West Steele Lane.

Faceoff for Game 1, between the Winos and Joker’s Wild, is at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Games continue each day through midday July 19.

They may be “seniors” and play a slower game than they used to, and there’s no body checking anymore. But these guys are competitive.

Players, ranging from the youngest at 40 to well over 70, compete in 17 divisions separated by age and competitive levels. Some former National Hockey League players and coaches will play, as well as several who competed in college - in addition to the recreational players who just play for fun and exercise.

There’s even a nonagenarian: Mark Sertich of Minnesota, who turns 94 this year, is on the roster for the Continental 75’s.

Some have competed in the tournament for years, even decades, and visit Sonoma County as part of an annual vacation.

Others - like those who turned the big Four-Oh this year and just became eligible - have “waited their whole lives to be able to play here,” joked tournament director Mike Kovanis.

This will be the 25th tournament for 66-year-old Canada native Don Clement. Playing for the United Nations team, run by Charles Schulz’s son Monte, the team is competing in the top division for its over-60 age group.

“We’ve got a nucleus of guys that are here every year. We’re growing old together,” said Clement, who now lives in Oklahoma.

“I’ve got friends that I’ve had for over 25 year that I see for 10 to 14 days a year here,” he said. “It’s kind of like having a high school reunion every year.”

The local tournament began in 1975, two years after legendary “Peanuts” comic strip creator Charles M. Schulz began taking his Diamond Icers team from Santa Rosa to the Senior Olympics tournament in Burbank.

A few years before that, the only ice rink in Santa Rosa closed and Schulz decided to build a community ice rink in 1969 to fill the void, ultimately taking over the senior tournament and moving it north, Kovanis said.

Schulz, a fierce competitor, played each year until 1999, the year before his death. The tournament took a year off in 2001, but family members decided to continue the tradition since, and it has grown in size and participation every year since its birth.

It welcomes more than 1,000 players to town, many of whom stay between 4 and 7 days, Kovanis said.

“It pretty easily brings hundreds of thousands of dollars to the local economy in room nights, restaurant spending, golf - golf is a big one,” he said. “Everyone goes out to the wineries and stuff like that. Some of them bring their spouses and grandkids.”

From 10 teams in 1975, the tournament has grown to 68 this year, with entries coming from throughout the United States and Canada and a few from as far away as Japan, Switzerland and Austria.

Clement, a semi-retired insurance man, was born and raised in Calgary, “where we almost came out of the womb playing hockey,” he said.

He now hails from Oklahoma, where people think he’s crazy for playing hockey at all, not just for playing hockey while old enough to collect Social Security.

“I joke about it,” he said. “When I first played here … I saw these 70-year-olds and Charles Schulz was one of them. I said, ‘Just look at those old guys.’ Now I’m one of them.

“I keep telling people I’m going to keep doing it until I can’t.”

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.