Next season when Walkerton’s minor hockey teams are winning faceoffs, firing home wristers from the point and racking up tournament gold medals they’ll be looking especially stylish, wearing brand new re-designed jerseys.
A contest was recently held allowing Walkerton’s young hockey talent to dream up a design to replace the royal blue, white and red jerseys that have been in use for over 15 years.
“It was time for a different look,” said Walkerton Minor Hockey co-equipment manager Don Leslie.
The winning design, drawn by eight-year-old novice Keaton Holm, was announced on April 18 at the Walkerton Minor Hockey banquet.
Out of a field of approximately 50 designs, six finalists were chosen and then passed on to a four-person committee to determine the winner.
“There were all kinds of designs — we were looking for the six best,” Leslie said, “We had a committee of four that eventually chose the winner, without ever seeing the names of who made the designs. Nobody on the committee knew that Keaton was the winner until the banquet.”
Leslie said the prominent ‘W’ on the front and sleeves of the jersey in Holm’s design were what impressed the judges most.
“They liked what he did with it,” Leslie said, “We used a lot of Keaton’s ideas and incorporated them into a very modern design that will hopefully last another 15 years.”
According to Keaton’s mother Sarah Holm, her son was initially unaware of the significance of having his design chosen.
“When we were leaving the banquet I asked him ‘Do you know what this means?’ He was happy, but he thought he had just won a picture contest. I told him, ‘no, your jersey is going to be the new minor hockey jersey — and not just for your team, but for everyone’.  His reaction after that was pretty big,” she said, “He just had a big smile and he couldn’t even talk.”
Keaton told The WHT that he thinks it’s pretty cool having his design chosen, “and totally unexpected”.
For coming up with the winning design, Holm, who attends Brant Central, gets free registration into minor hockey next season.
“We’re extremely excited about the look of the jerseys. Even just judging by the ovation I think a lot of people are excited about it too,” said Leslie.
Classic Walkerton Minor Hockey jerseys were on sale at the banquet for $5, and can still be purchased by those nostalgic for their glory days in the blue white and red by contacting Leslie at 519-881-1506 or 519-881-9200.