Telegraph file photo by TOM KING Members of the Nashua South-Pelham 2016 hockey team celebrate their Conway Holiday Hockey Tournament title that December. The event, after a year's absence, is back again Dec. 26-28.

Holiday hockey is back in Nashua.

The Conway Arena Holiday Tournament, which was off the schedule a year ago for the first time in over a decade, is back on, with a six team event set for Dec. 26, 27, and 28.

“It just made sense,” Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras said. “And some parents stepped up and said they’d take control of it.”

What made the most sense was to have Nashua North-Souhegan, South-Pelham, and Merrimack not travel to Keene as they did a year ago, as the new arena there hosted its own four-team event. Instead, Keene, which won the Conway tourney two years ago, will return along with Alvirne-Milford, Hollis Brookline-Derryfield, plus Merrimack and the two Nashua teams. A six team event worked rather than a larger scale tourney.

“Conway was open to it on a smaller scale as they would be giving up less ice time,” Gingras said.

The rink’s wanting to not give up a lot of that time, plus not having anyone from the parental ranks step forward to take control, was a factor in the tourney not being played last year.

But that changed.

“We’re excited about it,” South-Pelham coach Shawn Connors said. “Most of the parents were upset that we were going to Keene last year when we could have had a tournament ourselves. Lisa and the parents stepped up and said we’re going to try to make it work. Every team going to Keene last year was from here.

“We’ve got it back, we’re ready to roll.”

There will be games at 11:10 a.m., 12:50 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 26 and 27, with the finals set for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 28.

The finalists will be the top two best overall records, but tiebreakers in order are head to head, least penalty minutes, goals against,and then goals for. Also, games will be comprised of two 20-minute halves – including the title game.

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While the Conway Tourney will be taking place, things will be busy at the same time at Nashua South – and to some extent North – for the annual Chick Fil A Holiday Basketball Tournament

Thornton Academy from Maine will be back to defend the boys title, but Goffstown will not be back to defend its girls crown.

The boys teams will be Thornton, Nashua North, Nashua South, Merrimack, Alvirne, Souhegan, Goffstown and Milford. Games begin at 1:30 p.m. with the last game set for 6 p.m. on Dec. 26, at Nashua South.

Then the losers bracket games and semis (5 and 6:30) are at South on the 27th with the boys final at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 28.

As for the girls, the first day – and first day only – will be at Nashua North’s Titans Gym, also 1:30 p.m. with the last game at 6. The teams this year are Nashua North and South, Alvirne, Merrimack, Keene, Campbell, Souhegan, and Milford.

The girls semis at South will be just prior to the boys, at 2 and 3:30 p.m.

The girls final is set for that Saturday at South at 3 p.m., prior to the boys title game.

There are consolation/losers bracket games at South for the girls as well with game beginning at 8 a.m.on the 27th and 9 a.m.on the 28th.

Why is the first day of the girls tourney at North? Well, as Chick-Fil-A does not operate for any reason on Sundays, the tourney will start on the day after Christmas for the first time in several years to get it done by the end of Saturday. Gingras and new tourney chairman Allison Lynn wanted to avoid the early morning games that day.

“We didn’t want people having to come here at 7 a.m.the day after Christmas,” Gingras said.

Should there be any weather issues, the finals will be on Monday, Dec.30 – and just the finals, Gingras said, with no third place games, etc.

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Gingras will have three coaching positions to fill for the spring – theoretically.

One which was reported here earlier is boys lacrosse, as the Titans will have their third head coach in three seasons.

The other opening – girls lacrosse – has an interesting aspect. Last year, North was co-coached by Heather McKillop and Kristen Peterson.

Both certainly proved to be capable coaches, but McKillop is an assistant principal at North. However, it’s been past practice in the district that administrators not coach. Thus, the position has been re-opened, but if there aren’t any qualified candidates, it’s likely the job will go back to the tandem of McKillop and Peterson.

“Past practice has been that administrators not coach,” Gingras said. “So the position has been re-opened to determine interest.”

And, there’s one more spot to fill, as the Titans boys tennis coach Don Gorelick stepped down after four seasons. Gingras surprisingly got Gorelick’s resignation letter on Monday. Gorelick was well respected by Gingras and the Nashua administration.

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The Nashua Hall of Fame Committee – of which this writer is a member – is still seeking sponsors for the induction event set for May 6. Information can be found at both nashuasouthathletics.com and nashuanorthathletics.com…

Speaking of lacrosse, Merrimack girls lacrosse standout has signed a letter of intent to play next season at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. In fact, she’s asked to wear No. 12, which will belong this year at GMU to Amherst’s Hailey Johnson….

As was reported here a couple of months ago, the Bishop Guertin girls basketball team will be traveling to Naples, Fla. Dec. 28-31 to play in a prestigious holiday tournament. The Cards opponent in their first game will be Miami Country Day, which spent two-thirds of last season by some rankings as the top high school team in the country…

If you want an early look at the Nashua South-Pelham and North-Souhegan hockey teams, they scrimmage against each other this Friday at 5 p.m. at Conway Arena.

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