The National Capital Hockey Tournament, more familiarly known as the Purple Puck Tournament, is a longstanding holiday tradition.

Now in its 31^st year the tournament is hosted by Gonzaga Prep and brings some of the scholastic and prep school teams to the Washington, D.C. area each year. This year’s event begins on Saturday, December 27 and runs through Monday, December 29.

For St. Joseph’s Prep, the Purple Puck event is a regular fixture on the schedule. The Hawks have had considerable success there; they’ve won championships in two of the last three seasons. Senior Ben Kurson is the Hawks’ captain.

“The Purple Puck Tournament is very competitive. Teams come from all over the country and test our team every year. It is always a challenge, but I am very confident in our group this year. “

Kurson has fond memories from the Purple Puck Tournament; he played on championship-winning teams as a freshman and sophomore

“I remember really looking up to the upperclassmen,” he said, “seeing how they played for each other, and how they treated the younger players. I hope as a senior, in my last Purple Puck Tournament, I can similarly do this for our team.”
Kurson says the experience of being on the road as a group for a long weekend builds team cohesiveness.

“This tournament greatly helps to develop team chemistry. Eating meals together, traveling to the games together, and briefly living together all contribute to working well on the ice. Also, our team has a tradition of doing Secret Santa at this tournament. This has always been my favorite off ice activity, and is always very funny to see what people get for each other. 

St. Joseph’s Prep coach Charlie Van Kula says the weekend offers his team a lot of benefits, including testing it in a tournament setting.

“The round robin is only three game, but you do have to perform well to make it to the championship rounds,” he said. “Regardless of what’s on the line, it’s a unique situation, learning how to play {in a tournament setting}.

“That’s one aspect, but I think equally as important is the time together as a group.”

In addition to the Hawks’ varsity, one of their junior varsity teams will also be part of the tournament and several sub-varsity players will be on the trip even though they may not dress for games.

“I think it’s important for all of us to be together as a group,” Van Kula said. “Especially with the nature of our sport, it’s so rare to have even one individual team all together at once but certainly to draw the whole program together is a valuable eperience.

Kurson says the Hawks find out a lot about themselves over the course of the weekend. ”I think as a team we learn a lot. When we play so many games in such a short period of time, it gives us the ability to tweak something and directly implement it in the same day. In comparison, we usually play one game a week, so we have to wait a whole week to change what we learned. “

• The Hawks will not be the only APAC team in this year’s field. The Hun School will also be part of the event. The other three conference teams will also be involved in tournaments this weekend. La Salle will travel to Providence for a four-team event involving Christian Brothers-affiliated institutions while host Malvern Prep and Holy Ghost Prep will take part in the Friars Faceoff