Bringing north to south

Drinking beer and playing hockey just go together, according to Daniel Howard, a bartender at Cahaba Brewing Company who’s played the sport since he was 11 years old in Huntsville. 

“If you say the phrase, ‘beer league,’ the thing that comes to mind is hockey,” he said.

Trim Tab Brewing Company CEO Harris Stewart said beer and hockey go together like football and the South. 

“It’s just part of the tradition, part of the culture,” he said.

Given this connection, it’s perhaps no surprise that Cahaba Brewing, Trim Tab and Good People Brewing Company now sponsor teams in the Pelham Adult Hockey Association (PAHA) at the Pelham Civic Complex. The summer/fall season, which runs from July to November, is the third season for Cahaba Brewing and the second for both Good People and Trim Tab.

And while these sponsorships provide the breweries with special marketing opportunities, they seem to have a larger significance in the Birmingham sports community. The fresh support from craft brewers is helping draw other corporate sponsorships, giving the teams some much-needed financial help. 

Perhaps most important, they also are helping drive greater interest from fans and players — both newbies and veterans — in a growing league that is making room in Alabama for an exciting, fast-paced sport from the frozen north.

“These guys love the sport, want to compete, and carve out their own time and often their own money to make it possible,” Stewart said. “So they make the most of it and have a … good time while they do it. We’re proud to support them and to help cultivate a developing sport.”

Howard plays center and wing for Cahaba Brewing, making him the only brewery employee on any of the brewery-sponsored teams. He also helped start the trend toward sponsorships in 2015 when he became captain of the team, which already was active. He asked Cahaba Brewing for help and discovered that co-owner Eric Meyer had played hockey in high school.

“He was all over it,” Howard said.

Trim Tab and Good People followed Cahaba Brewing’s lead. The breweries generally pay for the players’ jerseys and hockey socks, and also give them free beer after the games.

The players said they enjoy being linked to the breweries.

“It’s been kind of fun to see this subgroup of people come out,” said Drew Thomasson, the Good People squad’s goalie. “Hockey is a beer-type sport, like in the movie ‘Slapshot’ in the ’70s. There’s a camaraderie. A lot of guys go to bars after games. Like rugby, they have their own chants or songs.”

Good People Marketing Director Lauren McCurdy said it’s been a fun promotion for the brewery.

“The South is mostly known for their love of football, so we jumped at the opportunity to support a group that wanted to branch out and play a sport they loved,” she said.

Erik Hudson, hockey director at Pelham Civic Complex, said the league has 14 teams — four in the Gold Division, six in the Silver Division and four in the Bronze Division. Gold Division teams have advanced playing experience, such as high school, college or professional hockey.

Cahaba Brewing and Good People — a veteran team formerly in the Gold Division — play in the Silver Division. Trim Tab plays in the Bronze Division.

Cahaba Brewing won the Silver Division championship for the 2015 summer/fall season. The squad travels to tournaments across the Southeast, winning events in Dallas in 2015 and in Huntsville this summer, according to Howard.

Good People won the winter/spring 2016 Silver Division championship, beating Cahaba Brewing 4-3 in overtime in the final, Howard said. The two squads have developed a rivalry on the ice.

Good People is the “old-school team” in Pelham, Thomasson said.

“I’m the youngest guy at 33. We have some guys from Toronto in their early 50s,” he said

“We have definitely been the top two teams,” Howard said. “Those games are always a little faster, a little more physical and a little more intense.”

This has been an “exciting” time for the PAHA, according to Hudson. Since he became director in October 2015, they have grown from about six teams to 14.

“We’re recruiting players and getting people involved,” he said. 

The brewery sponsorships are a boost. “We’ve gotten a lot of interest from other businesses now that beer sponsorships are involved,” Hudson said.

The sponsorships give the league a public-relations lift.

“I was at Good People after a [Birmingham] Barons game and saw a jersey for the hockey team,” Hudson said. “It helps with money, but it’s also great to have the Birmingham crowd involved with our program.”

“Having the breweries is an extra draw,” Thomasson said. “People who wouldn’t normally come to see the sport are coming out.”

There are now bars with teams, as well as groups of police officers and firefighters, some of whom take part in a developmental league, according to Thomasson.

Black Market Bar has two teams, a silver and a bronze, with the bar’s owner George Cowgill — a Birmingham firefighter — playing for the bronze team, Hudson said.

Most PAHA players are from the South, according to Hudson.

“We have 200 adults who play, and I’d say 70 percent are from Alabama, Tennessee or Mississippi,” he said.

The league also has its share of Northerners. “We have a lot of people transplanted [to Alabama] due to UAB and the auto industry,” Hudson said.

Hudson would like to have more fans at the games, and said there are concessions and “a good atmosphere” at the arena. “At the gold level, we have a high quality of play,” he said.

Stewart said that hockey is fast-paced and intense and predicts an increase in its local popularity.

“As people learn more about the sport, know more people involved, and most importantly get to see some games, it will only improve,” he said. 

For more information about the PAHA, including schedules, call 620-6448 or go to pelhamhockey.net.