Fifteen-year-old Christian Doll passed away on July 26. File Photo/File Photo

By Jesse Gill

IN THE COMMUNITY

Memorial hockey tournament taking place in honour of Christian Doll

Mar 17, 2025 | 3:53 PM

The Christian Doll Memorial Hockey Tournament is taking place at the Big Marble Go Center on April 6, three days before what would have been the late teenager’s 16th birthday.

Christian, an avid hockey player in Medicine Hat, passed away on July 26, 2024 at the age of 15.

The original plan was to hold just a game before it evolved into a tournament because of the level of interest.

Kirsten Draper, an organizer, said they were really excited to have 60 players register.

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“Which was more than expected. So we decided to make four teams instead of our original two,” Draper said.

Josie Doll, mother of Christian, said words can’t explain how grateful she is to Kirsten and the entire planning committee.

“The actual thoughtfulness of everything that went into planning this to remember our boy. It’s just, when we saw the list of players, both his dad and I teared up,” Josie said.

“I mean, we miss our son greatly, but doing something like this is just giving us something to look forward to. So we’re so beyond grateful for it.”

For those that come to watch, Draper expects to see a group of really great kids that love and miss their friend, but also want to celebrate him and remember him.

“I think that’s going to be a lot of fun, and we’re also going to have a raffle table there, and there’s beautiful commemorative jerseys for all the kids,” Draper said.

Katelyn Richard, Christian’s step-sister, had originally designed the CD part of the logo, and then the organizing group has added to the logo.

Josie said it’s just so wonderful to get to see his name on things, and just to really celebrate him.

“Christian was just such a wonderful kid and exuded such joy and excitement,” Josie said.

“He loved the game of hockey and he played it very fiercely. He talked about courage in the corners a lot,” she added.

“To get to see his friends come out, and it’s a hard time for his friends too. So to see them have some fun and just remember their friend who’s watching this entire game cheering.”

The tournament will run on Sunday, April 6, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. with everyone encouraged to come watch.

“You don’t have to be playing, you don’t have to be a hockey fan. These are 2009-born players, so that’s the year Christian’s born. It should be some actually really good hockey to watch,” Josie said.

“If you want to come down and just celebrate Christian and celebrate the boys and them really learning how to memorialize and remember a friend moving forward. I think it’s just going to be a really nice day,” she added.

“I’m just really grateful to this group of people that did this of their own accord.”