Edmonton's Sonny Sekhon Builds Ball Hockey League for Punjabi Youth

When Sonny Sekhon got the call that Edmonton's Punjabi Ball Hockey League was suddenly shutting down, he was standing in a Las Vegas hotel lobby about to watch the Oilers play. Within weeks, he'd built an entirely new league from scratch.

Sekhon's love for hockey started at age four, watching the Oilers on TV beside his grandfather who'd immigrated to Canada in 1983. His grandfather would yell at the screen in Punjabi, a man who'd never seen ice in his life but fell hard for Edmonton's game.

Years later, Sekhon tried out for his first team at Clare Drake Arena. When the coach called out his legal name, Harinder Singh Sekhon, other kids giggled and he started to cry.

But another parent sat beside him on the bench and told him about the magic of the sport. "I bet you're going to get out there and I bet you're going to love it," the man said.

Thirty-three years later, Sekhon is still all in. On Monday, the NHL named him one of three Canadian finalists for the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award, which honors people who positively impact their community through hockey.

His nomination comes from founding the Punjabi Elite League in April 2025. When the established Punjabi Ball Hockey League unexpectedly folded, captains from across Edmonton called Sekhon in a panic.

Sekhon already had experience organizing hockey events, including 15 years helping run Edmonton's Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament. He'd also helped launch three-on-three ball hockey tournaments years earlier as an offshoot of a Calgary event.

"I didn't promise anything, but I said I would try," Sekhon says. With a tight turnaround and existing infrastructure from his tournament work, he pulled it together.

The Ripple Effect

The Punjabi Elite League now creates space for hundreds of players in Edmonton's Punjabi community to connect through sport. For Punjabi youth especially, it offers a pathway into hockey that feels welcoming from day one.

Sekhon's journey from a crying kid at tryouts to a Community Hero Award finalist shows how one person's experience of both rejection and acceptance can shape an entire community's access to the game. The father who comforted him at that first tryout probably never imagined the ripple his kindness would create.

The league represents something bigger than ball hockey. It's proof that the sport Sekhon's grandfather loved so fiercely from that Edmonton couch now has room for everyone who shares that passion.