Over the weekend, despite weather-caused cancellations, the 50th annual John MacInnes Holiday Hockey Classic was played at the rink that bears the legendary Michigan Tech hockey coach’s name, the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

I played in the tournament twice in my time with the Houghton Gremlins, and, at that time, we Gremlins were better known for being terrible in that tournament, but better in other ones we played in, including the regional tournament at the end of the season.

In fact, my senior year, we won every game we played prior to the week of the tournament. We played the Calumet Copper Kings in one final tuneup early in the week and lost. We followed that loss up with two more, one to Calumet and the other to Hancock, in the tournament itself. From there, we went 15-0-2 over the remainder of our schedule to win the regional championship, and make it to the state semifinals before falling to Bloomfield Hills-Cranbrook-Kingswood.

While my experience was less than exciting in terms of personal success, there have been several quality hockey players from the Copper Country who have had a lot of success playing in the MacInnes Classic, whether we talk about Bobby Rangus from Calumet, Ryan Markham from Houghton, or Tanner Kero from Hancock, who all played in the tournament as high school players before returning to Houghton as players at Michigan Tech years later.

The tournament itself has gone through several different lineup changes throughout the years, and this year, for the 50th anniversary, the athletic directors of Houghton, Hancock, Jeffers and Calumet got together and decided to invite four teams from outside the area in Livonia Stevenson, who won the tournament in 2024, Capital City, Eastside, all Michigan-based teams, and DePere, from Wisconsin.

All four local hockey coaches have played in the tournament, and now coach in it, and all four agree, the tournament is a special moment each year that their teams look forward to.

Joe Burcar, who played for Houghton when he was in high school, now coaches the Hancock Bulldogs.

“Well, first and foremost, I was just telling Matt (Marchel), my assistant coach, I haven’t been downstairs here since I played in high school and lockers are still here.

“It’s an honor to coach Hancock for the Classic, and it brings back a lot of memories for me. It was a good time in my life playing high school hockey, and this is always a big part of our hockey season as a player, and it’s pretty cool.”

Aaron Helminen, who coaches the Jeffers Jets, played for Calumet when he was a varsity hockey player. He discussed the experience with his team, which happens to include one of his sons.

“We talked about that before the game with the boys (about) how excited we are for the opportunity,” he said after his team defeated DePere Saturday. “To be back and involved in this, (with) the other local teams inviting you to come and play in it. So, we wanted to definitely come out and put out a good effort as far as that goes.

“(It’s) neat to have played in it, (now) coach in it, and have kids playing in it. It’s all good stuff, and Tech’s done a great job. Obviously, Houghton and Hancock who are organizing it, and everything, has done a great job too.”

Micah Stipech, who played for Houghton and now is in his third year as the head coach, had the experience of winning a MacInnes Classic title.

“There’s those moments where it’s very meaningful,” he said. “It’s an honor just to be a part of it, much less be coaching.

“I still remember all of my tournament appearances. I remember when we won it in 1989, so it’s special. I’m really happy with how this 50th year turned out. It seems like everybody else is happy with it, and it’s great that all of our local teams are participating, so hopefully we can keep it going for 50 more years.”

Dan Giachino, who played for, and now coaches the Copper Kings, loves being involved in the tournament year after year. His teams use the tournament for a very specific purpose.

“It’s always a tradition here, coming here at Christmas time,” he said after his team defeated Livonia Stevenson Saturday. “I think, for us, (it) really helps to prepare, in terms of when February comes and playing (in a different rink than we are used to). This is such a different environment than we’re used to playing, and we’ve had a really home heavy schedule here early in the season. So, (to) come down here and play in a pretty drastically different environment from what we’re used to, and playing a good, solid, sound hockey game was good for us.”

The MacInnes Classic serves as a midpoint for the season, despite the fact that the local teams tend to have heavy January and February schedules afterwards. It gives them a chance to assess where they are at, and what they still need to work on over the next two months.