|
|
|
|
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Youth Hockey Making Strides
Fort Worth, TX
|
|
|
Hockey is a non-traditional sport in the state of Texas, for obvious reasons, but that might be on the verge of changing. Like soccer before it, hockey is infiltrating the youth levels, and local associations like the Texas Brahmas Hockey Club are facilitating that.
The Texas Brahmas, members of the Central Hockey League formerly known as the Fort Worth Brahmas, recently teamed up with NYTEX Sports Center in North Richland Hills, the new home arena for the team. To further promote hockey in the area, NYTEX decided to bring in the Junior Brahmas association and expand it. The Cowtown Athletics Hockey Association (CAHA) originally had two teams under the Junior Brahmas umbrella, but that quickly blossomed into ten teams, thanks in part to Knute Anderson, director of hockey programs at NYTEX.
“[We] reached out to the board of CAHA and said, ‘We want you to make this your home and we want to look into the possibility of expanding your two-team association and see what the response is and maybe grow it,’” explained Anderson.
“We had try-outs. We advertised a little on the try-outs, and the response was really overwhelming,” he added. “We went from two teams in the association to ten overnight, which puts us in the top five associations in the Metroplex. It instantly put us on the map as one of the powerhouse associations out there.”
The Junior Brahmas offer competitive travel hockey for kids aged seven years old through high school players. The teams are broken down as follows:
Mites – ages 7-8
Squirts – ages 9-10
Peewees – ages 11-12
Bantams – ages 13-14
Midget Minor – ages 15-16
Midget Major – ages 16-18
For most adults who have no experience skating, it’s probably hard to imagine learning to play hockey at age seven, but Anderson says you’d be surprised at how kids pick up the game at even a young age. More importantly, though, they learn to have fun playing the game.
“The priority at that age is that they step on the ice with a smile, and step off the ice with an even bigger smile,” Anderson said. “That is the main focus at that age. If you get the kids moving on the ice, touching the puck a lot, and making passes and skating, their development is going to come through their appreciation and fun of the sport.”
One of the concerns many parents have with starting kids into hockey is the cost. It’s a common misconception that it is really expensive to get a child into hockey.
“I think they typical mom and dad thinks, ‘Oh great you want to play hockey, your skates are going to cost this amount, your gloves, and pants and everything else that I don’t even know what it takes ,’ but we have some great programs set up where we can get the kids skating for very little if not 100 percent free when it comes to equipment.”
The bulk of that equipment comes from kids and families who have outgrown their gear and donated it back to the association for the very purpose of giving other kids an opportunity to get into the sport of hockey.
“Anybody who walks in our door, and I say this with confidence, anyone who walks in the NYTEX Sports Center and wants to play hockey, we can pretty much get them outfitted from head to toe for nothing,” Anderson said. “And we have some great introductory programs that we have to get the kids skating where they test the waters before they have to commit financially.”
The Junior Brahmas also offers something that many other associations cannot, and that is teaching from professional hockey players. Brahmas coaches and players are at times hands-on with the kids.
“For example, at our peewee practice that we had [the other night], on the ice with the peewee coaches was Brahmas head coach Dan Wildfong, our star goalie David Cacciola, and captain of the team Blair Manning, all working with the kids,” Anderson said. “It was just a joy to watch that dynamic in play because every kid was starry-eyed. I don’t think there is any other association that can offer that type of direct access to professional players, and that’s a pretty cool thing.”
|
|
| No comments added! Click [ add a comment ] to be the first! |
|
|
|
™
™
