Welcome to the Nova Scotia Minor Ball Hockey League

Whether you’re returning for another season or joining us for the first time — welcome to the Nova Scotia Minor Ball Hockey League. We’re excited to have your family with us.

Our league is built on one simple idea: every child deserves a safe, fun, affordable place to play ball hockey and an opportunity to play, learn skills, meet new buddies and have fun.

Who is the Nova Scotia Ball Hockey league

The Nova Scotia Minor Ball Hockey League (NSMBHL) is a community-based youth sport program that helps kids play, improve, and fall in love with ball hockey. We run organized, safe, and fun sessions that build skills, confidence, friendships and ideally a lifelong love of sports.

Our goal is to help develop the sport of Ball hockey across Nova Scotia. We have activities in Halifax, Sackville, Bedford, Dartmouth, East Hants and this year we are working to expand to Kentville and Truro.

What to Expect This Season

We will play 11 sessions over a 8-9 week period. Most weeks teams will play one game at a consistent time. Teams may play a second game if required.

1.   Age groups

·      Our age groups are U7, U9, U12, and U15 (determined by birth year).

·      Age groups may be modified and/or combined depending on registration numbers in a particular division. Age groups will be modified based on date of birth.

·      If numbers allow, we may offer both a Recreation and Competitive division.

·      Teams play cross rink. 4 v 4     u15 will play 3 v 3.

·      This year, we will create a rec and competitive division in age groups where we have enough numbers.

2.   Skills and Drills for the u7 and u9 divisions.
New to hockey? Already experienced? Every player fits here.
We will provide our Skills and Drills program over the first 5 sessions. We will take time to teach the fundamentals — passing, shooting, stick handling, teamwork — while giving kids lots of touches on the ball and room to grow at their own pace.

3.   Our Facilities: We will use 4 facilities during the 2026 Spring season. Gorsebrook Ball Hockey Court, Lebrun Arena in Bedford, the Centennial Arena in Kentville and the Rath Eastlink Community Centre in Truro.  There is no dry floor space available in Dartmouth and the Sackville Arena and East Hants Sportsplex are also not available. We have initiated discussions with Cole Harbour Place and hope to secure that facility in the future.

While dry floor facilities are very limited, we have secured premier times each week and will assign all teams a home rink to allow us to create a consistent schedule.

Our Leagues

Halifax/Dartmouth will play home games on Saturday at Gorsebrook Ball Hockey Court. Games will begin at 9 am and continue to 4: pm. The youngest age group will play earliest time slot (Halifax/Dartmouth teams may also play 2-3 games at Lebrun)

Bedford/Sackville/East Hants will play home games on Sundays at Lebrun. Games will begin at 9:00 am and continue until 4:00 pm. The youngest age groups will play the earliest time slots. (Bedford/Sackville/East Hants teams may also play 2-3 games at Gorsebrook) 

 All u15 teams in HRM will play home games Sunday at Lebrun between 12-4

Kentville will play games on Tuesday evenings at the Centennial Arena between 5-9

  Game times:  U7 at 5:00pm   U9 at 6:00pm   U12 at 7:00 pm     u15  at 8:00 pm

Truro will play games on Thursday evenings at the Rath Centre between 5-9

  Game times:  U7 at 5:00pm   U9 at 6:00pm   U12 at 7:00 pm     u15 at 8:00 pm

Mandatory equipment: 

• Runners all must have a helmet and full cage, hockey gloves, shin guards (soccer shin pads work perfect) and a hockey stick
• Goaltenders require full gear. We will bring several sets and welcome players with their own gear to bring that.
• Safety will be our priority, and our league officials will make all decisions on gear.
• All players are also recommended to bring a water bottle

Additional info

• Official league updates will be posted on the home page of our website at www.nsmbhl.ca     Our Facebook page is used for promotion and fun, not official announcements or questions to the league.
• You will receive website and email updates as the season approaches
• Player evaluation and team balancing - our first session will be used to help balance the teams (we do our best at this, as close games tend to be more fun)
• After the evaluation session we will create the Team List and schedule for the entire season. Games will be scheduled within the same block of time each week as much as possible. That said, it might be necessary to plan around facility availability so pls be prepared to have some flexibility.
• You will receive a notice informing you when your player is scheduled for the player evaluation session.
• Questions are welcome at anytime by email at admin@nsmbhl.ca   

Whether your child is picking up a stick for the first time or building on years of experience, we’re here to help them enjoy the game, grow their confidence, and have a fantastic season.

We’re Glad You and Your Player are Here

Thank you for choosing the Nova Scotia Minor Ball Hockey League.
We’re excited to welcome your family and look forward to another great season of ball hockey.

See you on the court.