We’re happy to say our first free hockey clinic in Tucson was a success. With the AHL Roadrunners playing in Tucson next season, there’s some real enthusiasm for hockey in the area.
Tucson Parks
We were lucky enough to hook up with Tucson Parks and Recreation to be able to offer a free clinic for the kids in one of their summer programs. The “In-Betweeners Club” is a summer recreational program at the Donna Liggins Recreation Center for children aged 12-14.
Because DHD is an all volunteer organization, we are rarely able to stage events on any day other than weekends. We were glad we were able to sneak in a weekday event in this case. We have a goal to expand our reach beyond the Phoenix area, and local volunteers such as Coach Kyle Canfield and Sergio Mendez will help make that possible.
If you’re in the Tucson area and would like to help keep this ball rolling, please get hold of us and let’s see what we can do together!
Big Kids
We had our portable rink set up in a gym at the recreation center which was WAY cooler than the scorching summer temperature outside. Our usual clinic process is to familiarize the kids with hockey stick safety and the basics of the game. We’ll then run some drills so everybody gets familiar with how to play the game.
Then we turn everybody loose to actually play some games. Everybody wants to get to the “fun stuff” as soon as possible, don’t they? We ALL do!
There were some standout performers in the first group, hopefully some of them will continue to pursue hockey in some form.
Little Kids
While we were playing with the “big kids”, a group of “little kids” aged 8-11 started watching. Some of them looked like they wanted to play some hockey. So…
Once the time was up for the 12-14 year old group, we figured we’d stay around awhile and play with the 8-11 year old kids.
We’re pretty sure everybody had fun, we certainly did!
We are hoping to have the opportunity to stage more free hockey clinics all around the Tucson area. We’re always happy to talk to people looking for neighborhood or school events, our goal is to reach as many kids as we can.
Check out the slideshow below.
