The Saskatoon Hardcourt Bike Polo Club is hosting teams from across North America for the Great Plains Regional Bike Polo Qualifier this weekend.
Club member and tournament host Andrea Cessna describes the sport as “hockey on a bike.” There are three players on each team. Players control their bikes with one hand and hold a mallet in the other. The goal of the game is to score points on the opposing team’s net.
"I think if you've never seen bike polo before, it's something totally different. It's a fast moving game,” Cessna says.
The sport was born out of Seattle in the early 2000s. It came to Saskatoon about eight years ago, but has picked up momentum in the last four years.
This weekend, teams from Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City are competing. It’s a qualifying tournament — teams that do well will move on to a western-wide competition.
The tournament is happening at Optimist Park at the corner of 19th Street and Avenue J. Cessna says that curious spectators are encouraged to come out and watch.
“At this tournament in particular, there's a whole spectrum of skill sets,” she says. “You'll see people who it's their very first tournament and you'll see some players who've competed at worlds at an international level."
