AUBURN #- This President's Day weekend the rink at Casey Park will be a busy place as the facility plays host to the annual Auburn Ice Hawks Mighty Mite Tournament.

Auburn will hosts teams from all over the central New York region including Lysander, Cortland and New Hartford beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

While this is a mid-winter tournament, planning started as far back as this past summer.

“The committee first got together in August,” said Steve Byrne, initiation coordinator and tournament committee member. “This is all volunteer. We have a great group of parents that got together and started planning all of this and they have done a great job getting all of this together.”

Byrne was joined by tournament co-directors, Kim and Sean Corcoran and chairperson Jackie Reilly in organizing this long running tournament.

“This has been going on for over 30 years,” Byrne said. “I think it started back in '76, I think that was the first year we held this and it has been going on pretty much ever since.”

And the tournament has proven to be incredibly successful ever since.

“Almost as soon as we put the news out about it we were filled up with teams that wanted to play,” Byrne said. “By December we were full. This year with gas prices and everything a lot of places have had to cancel their tournaments, but we have been able to keep this going. The president of the central section himself said that this was one of the best tournaments in the section and we have a lot of people and players and teams that are very dedicated to that.”

Byrne said that this has been made possible, both through the hard work of parent volunteers and those that help out with donations.

Byrne said that there are various sponsors in the community that have been very supportive of the tournament.

The Auburn Department of Parks and Recreation, the Holiday Inn and Custom Engraving have gone to great lengths to help support the tournament.

“From ice time to trophies,” Byrne said. “To money to help us do this, they have all been great to us over the years and are a big part of what makes this possible.”

Across the board, the goal is to create a fun and festive atmosphere through the course of the three day tournament.

Thursday night many parents gathered at Casey Park to start decorating and putting up signs and team names.

“We want everyone to feel welcome here,” Byrne said. “Every teams name is going to be up on the walls here and there are going to be a lot of signs and posters and it is going to be a real welcoming place for all the teams.”

Off the ice, there will be 50-50 raffles, door prizes and food.

On the ice the weekend will be action packed with so many teams, each guaranteed to play at least three games a piece through the round-robin style tournament.

This is where Byrne said that his job really begins.

“Everything from these doors on out all our parents are in charge of,” Byrne said. “They have done a great job of getting all this together. From the doors and out to the ice, that is more my end of things with the games and the rules and making sure everything goes smoothly on the ice.”

With so many teams and players, the tournament is certainly a competitive one, but one that Byrne believes has more to show than just competition.

“I think this shows the kids what can happen when a community works together,” Byrne said. “That is what makes this possible. But it is also about playing good hockey and having a lot of fun and if possible winning the tournament, but it is about having fun playing hockey.”

The tournament will kick off Saturday at 8 a.m. with Mayor Michael Quill dropping the first puck. Play concludes on Monday.