NEW ULM — Hockey fans in New Ulm and the area will have a big event to look forward to in 2025.

New Ulm and the New Ulm Civic Center have been chosen to host the 2025 Bantam AA State Tournament according to New Ulm Hockey Association Operations Director Geoff Torzewski.

The tournament will be held the weekend of March 14-16, 2025.

New Ulm has previously hosted the PeeWee A and AA state tournaments.

“There will be eight teams in the tournament,” Torzewski said. “There are four regional tournaments throughout the state and the top two teams from each regional qualify for the state tournament here.”

And the players in this tournament are very good.

“If anybody remembers the PeeWee AA here two years ago, the teams are the bigger programs in the state,” he said. “Your Moorheads — a lot of Metro teams like Chaska-Chanhassen, Maple Grove, Woodbury. Those teams and some of the bigger powers in the out-state area.”

Torzewski said that the teams in the tournament will be some of the best youth hockey players in the state that are not yet at the high school level yet.

“These are your higher-end eighth- and ninth-grade players that are coming from some of the best associations and programs in the state. It is really good hockey, really fast-paced. Every game will be a good one.”

Torzewski added that the vast majority of the players that people will see in the state tournament will be playing high school hockey in Minnesota.

“It is a little harder to gauge at that level, but there are going to be colleges and junior teams looking at them shortly after Bantams,” he said. “Again it will be hard to gauge how many of those players will be going DIII or let alone DI, but the vast majority of the players will be playing high-level high school hockey in Minnesota.”

Torzewski said that when the PeeWee A and AA tournaments were here two years ago, crowds were very good.

“We drew a lot of fans for those tournaments — a lot of those fans were families of the teams,” he said. “But people here in town who like hockey really showed up last time.

“To me it is a testament to the people in our (New Ulm-Sleepy Eye Hockey) association who run our tournaments from year to year and as well to the people who run our city facility. Minnesota Hockey and its leadership use our cities venue as one of the select venues to host one of the premier tournaments in the state. We have good facilties, plenty of volunteers to run a good tournament. And our businesses in town do a good job of hosting away from the arena as well.”