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The finishing touches for the Western Canada Pond Hockey Championship are being put together with dozens of teams set to hit the ice in Chestermere after Christmas.

The first event of its kind in the Calgary area, 61 teams will take to Chestermere Lake from Thursday to Saturday for a giant pond hockey tournament on 12 rinks.

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Alex Halat, who is co-chairing the championship alongside former Calgary Flame Rhett Warrener, said they were overwhelmed by the number of teams looking to register.

“It blew up a little bit bigger than we thought it was going to be,” said Halat.

“Initially, we wanted 40 teams … logistically being our first year we didn’t want to screw up anything. We probably turned away 40 (teams).”

The logistics, Halat said, were a challenge to work through.

“Little things like scheduling. How do you schedule 61 teams on 12 rinks plus floods? We’re learning as we go,” he said.

“Right now, (we’re feeling) pure exhaustion — we didn’t realize how much work it was going to be to set up on a lake, especially to get the lake to a condition where no one gets hurt.”