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Tag Archives: Ice Hockey in Harlem

Hockey Family Photo Album, Page 2

08 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Devante Smith-Pelly, Ice Hockey in Harlem, Isaiah Saville, Tri-City Storm

The pictures and stories of hockey players of color just keep on coming, proving that these folks aren’t unicorns. Minorities in the game are plentiful, visible and here to stay. Here’s Page Two of your Hockey Family Photo Album.

Jazmin Malinowski, a goaltender for McKendree University in Illinois, playing for the United States in March at the 2019 Winter World University Games in Krasnoyarsk, Russia (Photo/Courtesy Erin Malinowski).

“Jazmin declared that she would be a goalie when she was 2 years old, played her first game at 5, plays for McKendree University and is currently at the World University Games on Team USA,” mom Erin Malinowski wrote (Photo/Courtesy Erin Malinowski).

Isiah Saville, left, is a goalie for the Tri-City Storm of the USHL. He helped guide Team USA the 2018 World Junior A Challenge championship in Alberta in December. He’s the USHL’s top goaltender and is ranked the eighth-best 2019 draft-eligible North American goalie by NHL Central Scouting (Photo/Courtesy Isaiah Saville).

Players from Detroit’s Clark Park outdoor skating rink and Detroit Red Wings defenseman Trevor Daley, center (Photo/Courtesy Al LaBarrie).

Joel “Chef Jojo” Thomas, left, Donnie “DJ” Shaw, center, and Robert “Dodger” Stuckey at Fort Dupont Ice Arena Marathon Hockey Game fundraiser for the rink (Photo/Courtesy Joel “Chef Jojo” Thomas).

Jackson Kuls, 13, defense, New York City Cyclones. “He learned to play hockey with Ice Hockey in Harlem where he learned about the game and the legacy of black players,” Joycelyn Kuls wrote. “At 5’10’’ 190 lbs, his nickname is Buff after his favorite player, Dustin Byfuglien.”

Chloe Brinson, defense. (Photo/Via Black Girl Hockey Club).

Craiden Jones, 11, Atlanta, Georgia. “Craiden fell in love with the sport after seeing kids playing hockey in the former Atlanta Thrashers practice facility in Duluth Ga.,” dad Craig Jones wrote. “Craiden began taking skating lessons at 6 years old and eventually earned a spot on the Duluth Phoenix All-Star team in his first season in 2015. Craiden’s love and passion for hockey continues to grow and currently plays for the Atlanta Kings travel team.” (Photo/Courtesy Craig Jones).

Russell Jean-Pierre. “Russell is an offensive defensemen who plays for the Ottawa Sting team in Canada,” mom Katie Russell wrote. “His team has had a successful year and currently fighting for the gold title in their league! (Photo/Courtesy Katie Russell).

Elijah Bryan, left, Oliver King and Michael Holland. “They have been hockey ‘brothers’ for years,” mother Michelle King wrote. “Sometimes they play together, sometimes on different teams. Michael and Elijah play high school hockey together at Newton North High School in Newton, Ma. Oliver plays prep school hockey at Worcester Academy in Worcester, Ma. (Photo/Courtesy Michelle King).

Arvin Atwal, defense, Cincinnati Cyclones,ECHL (Photo/Courtesy Cincinnati Cyclones).

Isaac Kaczmarowski. “We live in Wausau, Wis., and Isaac has skated since he was 4,” dad Tim Kaczmarowski wrote. “(He’s) 13 now and this was his first year of bantams. The medal pictures are from this year’s Badger State Games Bantam B tournament where they lost in the championship game after sudden death and a shootout (heartbreaker).” (Photo/Courtesy Tim Kaczmarowski).

This is me and my teammate Tracy Robinson last season pic.twitter.com/WY2I02yUWs

— Trevor Towindo (@2thewindo) March 3, 2019

Ross Mitton, forward for the USHL’s Lincoln Stars. He’s committed to play for Northeastern University next season (Photo/Courtesy Ross Mitton).

Grant Thomas Powers, 10, Rochester Youth Hockey Americans (Photo/Courtesy Phillippa Powers).

The NextGEN AAA Foundation team that played in the 2018 Chowder Cup in suburban Boston (Photo/Courtesy Dee Dee Ricks).

 

National Capital Hockey Tournament Director John F. Cotten (right) and Gonzaga College High School goaltender Jalen Greene at the 2018 MAPHL Championship game (Photo/Courtesy John F. Cotten).

Jason Payne, assistant coach,Cincinnati Cyclones,ECHL (Photo/Courtesy Cincinnati Cyclones).

Kyson Yarbrough, 10. (Photo/Courtesy Tracy Ames).

This is my son Willie. He's 10 yrs old and loves hockey! pic.twitter.com/DSTO649L7o

— Jennifer Gona (@jennifer_gona) March 2, 2019

Grayson and Julian Badger share a moment in the penalty box in 2012 (Photo Courtesy Al Badger).

Grayson Badger playing high school hockey last season in Massachusetts (Photo/Courtesy Al Badger).

Derek Arledge, coaching and conferring with referees at a Maryland youth hockey game (Photo/Courtesy Derek Arledge).

pic.twitter.com/zmAgNRC0HH

— Roger Lee (@Roger_Lee35) March 2, 2019

Nigel Wilson-Phillippi, 8. “We live in Maryland, but he plays for the Delaware Patriots White Mite A team in Newark, DE and the Tucker Road Ducks in Prince George’s County, Maryland,” mom Cheri Wilson wrote. “He wore #25 this year for Devante Smith-Pelly, who is now #23 on the Hershey Bears (Photo/Courtesy Cheri Wilson).

Devon Ledford, Baltimore (Photo/Courtesy Devon Ledford).

Love your site! Here’s my 15 y.o…Loves hockey more than anything! Dream is to play in the NHL. Works everyday to make himself better! Ready for the OHL in pursuit of his dream! 💪🏾🔥🏒 pic.twitter.com/inEFSP9470

— Stacy Powell (@StacyPo6734) March 3, 2019

Jaxson Brown, 15 of Charlotte, North Carolina. Bantam AA Carolina Rage. (Photo/Courtesy Eurnestine Brown)

@ColorOfHockey A mother daughter pair of black players. Me and my baby! pic.twitter.com/bDWqMzmd7V

— Cheryl Bascomb (@CherylBascomb) March 2, 2019

The 1995 Can-Am champion Detroit Rockies (Photo/Courtesy Joe Doughrity).

Blake Donovan (Photo/Courtesy Regina Donovan).

pic.twitter.com/fCB7dNXdlh

— Tyson Clinton (@tclints) March 3, 2019

Cameron Murray of Avon Youth Hockey Pee Wee/Squirt In House Team. “Hockey is the sport that accepts all, no matter what,” mom Deb Murray wrote.

#HockeyIsForEveryone pic.twitter.com/rtEzbdMgtG

— D Garrett (@3yearoldskater) March 3, 2019

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

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Ice Hockey in Harlem scores $25K in new gear, with big assist from 12-year-old boy

12 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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CMM, Ice Hockey in Harlem, John Sanful, New York Rangers

Here are some links to a wonderful holiday hockey story that shows what the caring power of one person can do – no matter how young or how small.

Last night's event was featured https://t.co/FQ3nRJnZqu! Check out this heartwarming story. https://t.co/IQrKjfvsGv

— Ice Hockey in Harlem (@HockeyinHarlem) December 8, 2016

City boy paying it forward assists @HockeyinHarlem in scoring $25K in new gear from @CCMHockey https://t.co/dNq7NVdUad pic.twitter.com/7E9zOLfOBp

— Metro New York (@metronewyork) December 9, 2016

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Snider Hockey tops Ice Hockey in Harlem in Fundraising contest – everybody wins

01 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, Ice Hockey in Harlem, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers

And the final score is Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation $124,637.67, Ice Hockey in Harlem $83,370.93.

The kids from Snider Hockey topped their New York youth hockey rivals in a friendly fundraising competition that began with the drop of the puck at the Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers game on Nov. 25 and ended around midnight on Nov. 29.

Victory is ours!! The Ed Snider youth Hockey Foundation outraised New York's Ice Hockey in Harlem in a friendly fundraising competition over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Victory is ours!! The Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation out-raised New York’s Ice Hockey in Harlem in a friendly fundraising competition over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The battle for bragging rights was part of #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to encourage philanthropy and celebrate generosity worldwide.

During the competition, donors and supporters of the two minority-oriented youth hockey organizations visited the websites of Snider Hockey and Ice Hockey in Harlem to make contributions, or gave via mail or in person.

Ice Hockey in Harlem came up a little short in its fundraising tilt against Philly's Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation. But there's always next year.

Ice Hockey in Harlem came up a little short in its fundraising tilt against Philly’s Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation. But there’s always next year.

With their victory, the Philly kids were crowned #FaceOffChamps. As part of the competition, the Harlem skaters – who normally wear Rangers colors – must don Flyers orange and black T-shirts and proclaim their love for their dreaded turnpike rivals on Ice Hockey in Harlem social media sites.

Stay tuned.

 

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Snider Hockey and Ice Hockey in Harlem face off in a grudge match for good causes

18 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, Hockey is for Everyone, Ice Hockey in Harlem, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers

It’s that time of year again.

Time for turkey and stuffing. It’s also time for the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers to beat the stuffing out of each other in a National Hockey League Metropolitan Division matinee the day after Thanksgiving at Philly’s Wells Fargo Center.

The Philadelphia-New York rivalry won’t be limited to the ice that Friday. Philly’s Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and New York’s Ice Hockey in Harlem will use the game to face off in a grudge match of their own- for good causes.

Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation players hope to win the #GiveTuesday challenge against Ice Hockey in Harlem - and avoid having to wear New York Rangers gear.

Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation players hope to win the #GiveTuesday challenge against Ice Hockey in Harlem – and avoid having to wear New York Rangers gear.

The two mostly-minority youth hockey organizations will engage in a head-to-head  fund-raising battle when the Flyers-Rangers puck drops at 1 p.m. EST on the 25th.

The competition is in recognition of #GiveTuesday, a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to encourage philanthropy and celebrate generosity worldwide.

Folks interested in participating in the challenge can do so by visiting the respective websites of Snider Hockey – www.sniderhockey.org – and Ice Hockey in Harlem  – www.icehockeyinharlem.org – to make contributions online. Donations can also be done by mail or in person.

For Snider Hockey and Ice Hockey in Harlem – both nonprofits – it’s about helping to keep two successful youth hockey programs running.

For the kids, the challenge is about bragging rights.The organization that raises the most money will be crowned #FaceOffChamps.

Skaters from Ice Hockey in Harlem look to defeat Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation players in the #GiveTuesday challenge.

Skaters from Ice Hockey in Harlem look to defeat Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation players in the #GiveTuesday challenge.

If Snider Hockey wins, a group of players from Ice Hockey in Harlem must wear Flyers T-shirts while sharing ‘Ice Hockey in Harlem LOVES the Philadelphia Flyers’ on IHIH’s social media pages.

Should Ice Hockey in Harlem win, Snider Hockey students must share their love for the Rangers on Snider Hockey’s social media pages while sporting Rangers gear.

“The real winners of this friendly competition will be the boys and girls of both programs who, through hockey, are learning life lessons and how to succeed in the game of life,” said Snider Hockey President Scott Tharp.

IHIH will take on @SniderHockey in a #FaceOffFundraiser!
Start: Rangers/Flyers Game 1pm 11/25
End: 11:59pm on #GivingTuesday 11/29#GoBlue! pic.twitter.com/Sqo5O8STvj

— Ice Hockey in Harlem (@HockeyinHarlem) November 16, 2016

Ice Hockey in Harlem Executive Director John Sanful agreed.

“Snider Hockey and Ice Hockey in Harlem are committed to improving the social and academic well-being of children through the sport of ice hockey,” Sanful said. “This initiative will positively impact many deserving boys and girls.”

The two programs are part of “Hockey is for Everyone,” an NHL initiative that provides support and unique programming to some 40 nonprofit youth hockey organizations across North America.

It offers children of all backgrounds the opportunity and access to learn to play hockey at little or no cost.

People wishing to make donations or pledges to Ice Hockey in Harlem for the #GiveTuesday challenge can do so online or send donations to the attention of  Ice Hockey in Harlem Executive Director John Sanful, 127 West 127th Street, Suite 415, New York, New York, 10027.

Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation supporters can make donations or pledges online, a dated check by mail, or by contacting Snider Hockey Development Staff at 215-952-4125. Flyers game attendees can also drop off donations at the Snider Hockey kiosk outside of section 108 during the hours of the competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Flyers founder Ed Snider passes away at 83, but his minority hockey legacy lives on

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Ed Snider, Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, Ice Hockey in Harlem, Philadelphia Flyers

“This is my legacy.”

Philadelphia Flyers founder Ed Snider and I were standing in the middle of a dry, under-renovation ice skating rink in West Philadelphia in 2011 when he made the remark.

He looked the picture of health then. Tennis-tanned and trim with his slicked-back snow white hair offering a contrast to his jet black warm-up jacket with the orange logo of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation.

The rink – the Laura Sims Skatehouse at Cobbs Creek Park– belonged to the city. But Snider helped spruce up the previously down-and-out semi-enclosed facility and three others, kicking in $6.5 million of a $13 million renovation program.

Ed Snider talks with members of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation in October 2005. Snider passed away Monday at age 83.

Ed Snider talks with members of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation in October 2005. Snider passed away Monday at age 83.

Snider Hockey was his, created in 2005 to teach the Philadelphia-area’s at-risk youth about the world of possibilities beyond their neighborhoods and life skills lessons through the prism of hockey. When the program needed more ice time for some 3,000 kids and growing, Snider ponied up to help enclose and modernize the public rinks without flinching.

He was a billionaire who sported two Stanley Cup rings and desperately thirsted for a third. He was a driving force in the National Hockey League, and a giant in sports and entertainment fields – but all those accomplishments took a back seat to Snider Hockey.

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever put my name on,” he told me for a story about the program was published in 2012. “We’re going to fund it properly and when I’m no longer around hopefully it will be a program that will go on forever. When I see what we’ve done for young children who may not have been able to accomplish what they’ve accomplished, what greater satisfaction in life can you get?”

Ed Snider, far right, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and then-Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, cut a ribbon dedicating a renovated Laura Sims Skatehouse at Cobbs Creek Park in November 2011.

Ed Snider, far right, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and then-Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, cut a ribbon dedicating a renovated Laura Sims Skatehouse at Cobbs Creek Park in November 2011.

Ed Snider, the fiercely proud patriarch of Philadelphia ice hockey, passed away early Monday in California at the age of 83 following a two-year fight with cancer.

Much of discussion of Snider’s life Monday centered on his role with his beloved Flyers, and rightfully so. But he also left a legacy with Snider Hockey, establishing one of the top non-profit, minority-oriented youth hockey programs in North America, if not the world.

According to Snider Hockey, 95 percent of its participants perform at satisfactory or above in core classes; 99 percent achieve grade-to-grade promotion; 85 percent of high school seniors continue their education in some form beyond high school.

“Ed created the Flyers professional, no-nonsense culture, fostered their relentless will to win and set the highest standards for every activity on and off the ice, including such initiatives as the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and the Flyers Wives Carnival,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Monday.

In a statement announcing his passing, Snider’s children said their father “was a man with deep convictions and never hesitated to promote causes in which he believed.”

“His children and grandchildren will continue his philanthropic mission for years to come through the work of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation (Snider Hockey) and the Snider Foundation,” the statement said.

John Sanful, executive director of Ice Hockey in Harlem, said “Mr. Snider’s greatest  achievements come through his philanthropic efforts.”

“Snider Hockey has impacted the lives of thousands of Philadelphia youth leaving a legacy for which Mr. Snider will always be remembered,” Sanful told me.

Philadelphia Flyers  players like forward Wayne Simmonds volunteer their time to Snider Hockey, the late Ed Snider's legacy.

Philadelphia Flyers players, like forward Wayne Simmonds, volunteer their time to Snider Hockey, the late Ed Snider’s legacy.

Snider Hockey’s reach extends beyond the Delaware Valley. On my way home from a convention in Minnesota last summer, I ran into a group of Snider Hockey players at the Minneapolis airport.

Dressed in the program’s team sweats and toting hockey sticks and duffel bags, they were on their way to Brainerd Lakes, Minn., for a camp through the combined efforts of Snider Hockey and former Flyer forward Scott Hartnell’s  #HartnellDown Foundation.

When developers of a currently-stalled project to build the world’s largest ice skating facility in a gigantic old armory in the Bronx, New York, were struggling with gaining acceptance from the mostly-minority neighborhood around it a few years ago, they loaded 65 community leaders onto a bus, drove to Philadelphia, and showed them Snider Hockey.

Snider followed up the bus trip with personal telephone conversations with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.

“What I saw was amazing,” Diaz told me in 2014. “To see 75 black and Latino kids in the centers enthusiastic about coming in after school; to see them with their big duffel bags full of equipment that, by the  way, was donated and readily-available to them free of charge; to see them getting academic instruction in math and reading; and to see these kids get on the ice as if it were second nature. You look at the numbers from the program and we see school attendance has gone up, we see that bad behavior has gone down. That’s exactly what I want for my Bronx kids.”

Diaz jokingly told the developers that “you guys messed up” because “you allowed me to come to Philly and see the Ed Snider program…And that’s the standard I’m going to hold for them right here in the Bronx.”

Snider was charitable, but he was also highly competitive. As we toured the Sims Skatehouse in 2011, he explained to me that the mission of Snider Hockey was to build good people, not necessarily to make good hockey players.

Then he pointed out that Sims and the other public rinks that he helped renovate with  NHL-standard boards and lighting would be open year-round, giving his urban Snider Hockey participants “more ice time than…those kids in the suburbs.”

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Ice Hockey in Harlem gets the perfect holiday gift: the repair and reopening of its home rink

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Ice Hockey in Harlem, Lasker Rink

Ice Hockey in Harlem Thursday will get the best gift that the organization could receive this holiday season: Its home rink back.

New York City’s Parks Department announced Wednesday that Central Park’s Lasker Rink, initially thought to be shut down for most of the winter because a major problem with its refrigeration system, will reopen on Thanksgiving Day.

“We want to sincerely thank everyone within the hockey community who came together on our behalf,” IHIH Executive Director John Sanful said. “It was a positive response, unlike any I’ve personally seen in some time. We are really looking forward to resuming our season again at Lasker Rink.”

The waiting is over! Ice Hockey in Harlem will return to its repaired rink next week.

The waiting is over! Ice Hockey in Harlem will return to its repaired rink next week.

Parks Department officials said all hockey games, practices and skating lessons at the Harlem rink are scheduled to resume on Monday. Since the rink abruptly shut down on Nov. 14, Sanful and IHIH officials have been trying to determine where the program’s 240-plus kids would skate and play during the 2014-15 season.

But IHIH’s worries ended when the parks department, which runs the rink with the Trump Organization and the community, managed to speed up the repairs to the rink’s valves and concrete slab.

“We are thrilled to welcome back Lasker Rink for this winter season,” said New York City Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver. “The rink is a beloved neighborhood destination during the winter months, and it offers a fun and exciting way to stay active and enjoy the cold weather. I applaud all of the NYC Parks employees who worked diligently to make the needed repairs.”
Hockey and Ice Hockey in Harlem return to Lasker Rink next week.

Hockey and Ice Hockey in Harlem return to Lasker Rink next week.

When Lasker’s availability for the season was in doubt, the hockey community in New York and beyond the city limits offered to help IHIH, one of the nation’s oldest minority-oriented youth hockey programs.
The New York Rangers said IHIH could use of its practice facility, the MSG Training Center, in Greenburgh, N.Y., and promised to help in shuttle the kids the 28 miles from the city to the suburban rink.
IHIH players can't wait to return to the ice next week.

IHIH players can’t wait to return to the ice next week.

“We cannot thank (Madison Square Garden Company Executive Chairman James) Dolan and (Rangers President and General Manager Glen) Sather enough for their support in our time of need,” Sanful said.
Ice skating rinks in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and even Rhode Island called with offers of ice time or games for IHIH players.
“This clearly demonstrated that Ice Hockey in Harlem has friends and supporters who care about hockey and that children, no matter who they are, should be able to play this beautiful game,” Sanful said.

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Home rink broken, Ice Hockey in Harlem looks for temporary place for kids to play

17 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Adam Graves, Boston University, Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, Ice Hockey in Harlem, New York Rangers, Union College

Since its inception, Ice Hockey in Harlem has done what many folks considered impossible.

It’s taken at-risk black and Latino kids from one of the city’s more impoverished areas and not only hooked them on playing hockey, but used the sport to expose them to a world beyond their neighborhood and to the world of possibilities if they stay in school and pursue life’s positive path.

The group’s presence helped revive a down-and-out outdoor rink in a part of New York where few white people dared to venture, making it a welcoming, family-friendly destination – a lynchpin in an evolving Harlem where people of all colors now live, shop, and dine.

“Hey, if Wayne Gretzky can go near 110th Street to hang with the kids at the Lasker Rink in the 1980s, why can’t I go skating there now” has become the mantra. Like Harlem’s Apollo Theater, the Lasker Rink is a place where everyone wants to play.

The Philadelphia Flyers practiced there in 2012, so did the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2011 and the Ottawa Senators in 2010. Boston University worked out with the IHIH there last year, ditto Union College in 2012.

But Ice Hockey in Harlem has been Lasker’s longest-running act, calling the rink on the north end of Central Park home since the organization’s creation in 1987. That run was interrupted over the weekend when the New York’s parks department suddenly announced that it was shutting down for the 2014-15 season to make major repairs to the facility’s refrigeration plant.

Ice Hockey in Harlem players are looking for a place to skate after their home rink is suddenly closed for repairs.

Ice Hockey in Harlem players are looking for a place to skate after their home rink is suddenly closed for repairs.

The shutdown sent Ice Hockey in Harlem, one of the nation’s oldest minority-oriented youth hockey programs, scrambling to find a place for over 240 kids to practice and play.

“We’re working on an emergency plan,” John Sanful, IHIH’s executive director told me. “I don’t have details yet, but suffice to say we’re committed to making the season happen.”

Sanful called the shutdown “a setback” but added that Ice Hockey in Harlem will do what it’s always done: overcome.

“It’s a minor setback, as with any situation beyond your control,” he said. “Ice Hockey in Harlem is stronger than it’s ever been. We will continue on and the future is very bright and very strong for Ice Hockey in Harlem.”

Still, there are no easy or ideal solutions for IHIH’s current predicament. New York is a city of 8.2 million people, but there are only seven indoor year-round ice sheets in the area.

Developers of the Kingsbridge National Ice Center are hoping to build the world’s largest ice skating facility in the New York City borough of the Bronx, a short subway ride from Harlem. But the mega rink in a massive renovated armory is years away.

Looking to solve their here-and-now dilemma, Ice Hockey in Harlem officials sent its squirts and Lady Harlem hockey team to practice Saturday in Brewster, N.Y., nearly 60 miles from New York City.

Ice Hockey in Harlem kids, who know their way around NYC's transit system, face playing in temporary digs.

Ice Hockey in Harlem kids, who know their way around NYC’s transit system, face playing in temporary digs.

Whatever IHIH does for the rest of the season will likely cost the nonprofit some money. Ice Hockey in Harlem depends on the hockey community and donations for funding.

The organization, founded by Dave Wilk, Todd Levy, and former New York Rangers player Pat Hickey, is part of the National Hockey League’s “Hockey is for Everyone” initiative which provides support and unique programming to more than 30 non-profit youth hockey organizations across North America.

Programs affiliated with”Hockey is For Everyone” help lower the biggest barrier that keeps many minority and poor kids from playing the game: The expense. Organizations like IHIH, Philadelphia’s Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, and Washington’s Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, provide free equipment, ice time, and instruction.

Ice Hockey in Harlem vows to play in 2014-15 despite home rink shutdown.

Ice Hockey in Harlem vows to play in 2014-15 despite home rink shutdown.

In return, kids in the programs must stay in school, be in good academic standing, and be respectful people.  Most of the programs provide academic assistance – tutoring, computer access, college counseling – and mentoring.

While the NHL assistance is beneficial, IHIH is almost always in fund-raising mode. They host an annual “Benefit on the Green” golf tournament that attracts current and former NHL players along with corporate and private sponsors.

The Rangers pitch in by hosting an annual Winter Sports Auction, and legendary team play-by-play man Sam Rosen and former Blue Shirts like Adam Graves generously give their time to the IHIH cause.

IHIH Alum Malik Garvin, good person, good hockey player, scored his first college goal.

IHIH Alum Malik Garvin, good person, good hockey player, scored his first college goal.

People inside and outside IHIH stress that its goal isn’t about building good hockey players. It’s about building good people. Levy’s voice filled with pride recently when he talked about Malik Garvin, who he use to coach on cold Harlem nights at Lasker.

Saturday, Garvin scored his first goal on his first shot for Western New England University, an NCAA Division III school. The Golden Bears lost to Suffolk University 3-1, but Levy said Garvin, a 22-year-old senior, was still a winner.

“He epitomizes what we want for all our kids…not the goal he scored but the fact that he is a double major – finance and accounting – and has used his love for hockey to propel him in life,” Levy. a member of the IHIH board, told me. “The sad irony is that with our rink closing this year, I fear that the next Malik will be prohibited from this kind of life success.”

 

 

 

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Myth-busters: Philadelphians shatter athletic stereotypes one game at a time

26 Monday May 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Ice Hockey in Harlem, Philadelphia Flyers, University of South Carolina, Wayne Simmonds, Wissahickon Skating Club, Work to Ride

There’s a really nice article in The Philadelphia Inquirer today about the Nomads, a mostly-minority rugby team from the city’s rugged North Philly section: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140526_The_raw_joy_of_North_Philly_s_young_ruggers.html.

The story got me thinking, “What is it about the City of Brotherly Love and myth-busting in sports?”

Black people don’t play hockey. Meet Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds, who led his team with 29 goals this season. Visit the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, a program that’s introducing a small army of children of color to the joys of hockey.

kids and coaches from the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, Ice Hockey in Harlem and Philly's Wissahickon Skating Club at a recent tournament.

kids and coaches from the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, Ice Hockey in Harlem and Philly’s Wissahickon Skating Club at a recent tournament.

Polo is a sport for the rich and famous. But someone forgot to tell that to Lezlie Hiner, a University of South Carolina graduate who established Work to Ride, an equestrian program in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park that attracts kids from the poor and working class neighborhoods nearby. In 2011, the program produced the first all-black polo team to win the United States Polo Association’s national interscholastic championship. The program repeated as champs in 2012. Her program put a black polo player in college. http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/Work_to_Ride_African_American_Polo_Team_Wins_National_Championship_Philadelphia-118270169.html.

Then there’s Jim Ellis and PDR. He began an all-black swim team out of a West Philadelphia pool in the 1970s that became a competitive juggernaut and the inspiration of the 2007 movie “Pride.” I had the pleasure of writing about Ellis and the movie that year for what was then AOL’s Black Voices:

  On the gritty streets of Philadelphia , long before Rocky Balboa threw his first punch on the silver screen or ‘Invincible’s’ real-life Vince Papale set foot on an NFL field, Jim Ellis was quietly forging a sports legend — and shattering myths. For more than 30 years, Ellis been the driving force of the swim team at Philadelphia Department of Recreation — PDR — a program that has turned black youths from novice tadpoles into top-notch competitive swimmers and cast aside the long-held racist stereotype that black people can’t swim.

What began with 35 black kids at a tough West Philadelphia neighborhood pool in 1971 grew into a juggernaut in the mostly white world of competitive swimming in the 1980s and 90s with more than 150 children taking lessons or competing in meets. Several of Ellis’ charges swam their way to college scholarships and U.S. Olympic team tryouts.

“It was my contribution to the black consciousness movement,” Ellis says. “It was doing something they said we couldn’t do. It was a way of getting kids out of the neighborhood, exposing them to other things and greater possibilities.” Hollywood has discovered Ellis’ against-all-odds story and made it into a movie. “Pride,” which stars Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac and Tom Arnold, opens in theaters nationwide in March. Lionsgate, an entertainment company riding a string of successful black-oriented films like “Akeelah and the Bee,” Tyler Perry’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” and “The Original Kings of Comedy” is producing “Pride”

PDR Coach  Jim Ellis chats with actor Terrence Howard in 2007 in Philadelphia (Photo: Marissa J. Weekes)

PDR Coach Jim Ellis chats with actor Terrence Howard in 2007 in Philadelphia (Photo: Marissa J. Weekes)

Ellis, a 59-year-old Philadelphia public school teacher and department of recreation employee, says he still can’t believe the movie was made — especially with Howard playing him — even though he watched it being shot last year in Baton Rouge, La. “I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m thrilled, but it’s kind of weird,” Ellis says. “I saw the movie trailer and saw Terrence (Howard) say ‘I’m Jim Ellis.’ It’s kind of unreal, something I never expected to happen.”

But if anyone’s story deserves telling, it’s Ellis’, according to officials at USA Swimming , the body that helps develop the sport and selects the Olympic team. “Jim Ellis is an icon, particularly because of his dedication to his sport and community, generating national team talent in an area where swimming is just not on the radar,” said John Cruzat, USA Swimming’s first-ever diversity specialist. “And he does it at a parks and recreation facility with little or no resources.”

Ellis and USA Swimming officials hope “Pride” will prompt more black people to learn how to swim and eventually take up competitive swimming, a sport where black athletes are just beginning to make a splash.

Cullen Jones set a meet record in the 50-meter freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships in Canada and became the first black swimmer to break a world record when he swam in the 4 x100-meter relay. The feats earned the former North Carolina State University swimmer at $2 million, seven-year endorsement contract from Nike, the company’s richest deal ever for a sprint swimmer.

Maritza Correia — recently featured in an Black Voices profile of black athletes in non-traditional sports — became the first black woman to make the U.S. Olympic swim team in 2004. Despite the accomplishments, the number of black competitive swimmers remains small. Less than one percent of the nation’s 232,000 competitive swimmers are black, according to USA Swimming.

More disturbing, Cruzat and Ellis say, is the high number of blacks who die in drowning accidents every year in bodies of water as big as oceans and as small as bathtubs. The Centers for Disease Control lists blacks as an at-risk group for drowning. A CDC study found that blacks drown at a rate 1.25 times higher than whites. Black children between the ages of five and 19 drown at a rate 2.3 times higher than white children in the same age bracket do. Ellis says it’s not that blacks can’t swim. It’s that they don’t. A lack of exposure to swimming, lack of funds for lessons, and limited access to suitable swimming facilities — particularly in urban areas — are factors that hold many blacks back from the water. Then there’s the centuries-old myth that blacks and water don’t mix. Studies from as late as the 1960s suggested that blacks had a unique buoyancy problem that prevented them from being competent swimmers. The studies were later discredited, but not before some people took the findings as gospel.

  In 1987 former Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis , explaining on ABC’s “Nightline” why blacks could never become baseball field managers or team executives, argued that swimming proved that blacks didn’t have what it takes to reach the top.

“The just don’t have the buoyancy,” Campanis told an astonished Ted Koppel.

“I put that one on my bulletin board,” Ellis recalls. “For motivation.”

Jim Ellis (center) and actor Terrence Howard (second left) in Philadelphia (Photo: Marissa J. Weekes).

Jim Ellis (center) and actor Terrence Howard (second left) in Philadelphia (Photo: Marissa J. Weekes).

But Ellis believes white racist attitudes aren’t solely to blame. He says many blacks are equally guilty for buying into the stereotype, dismissing swimming as a white country club activity or avoiding the water because it’s better to look good than to swim well.

“You still hear people talking about swimming, black females talking about not wanting to get their hair wet, or folks talking about not wanting to catch colds,” Ellis says with a sigh. The reluctance from within the black community and resistance among some whites within organized swimming to embrace a black swim team didn’t deter Ellis from building his program. But he and some of his former students admit it wasn’t easy. Ellis recounts tales of going to swim meets where officials were loath to announce the winning times of some of his swimmers. If a PDR swimmer won a heat, Ellis says, it wasn’t unusual for white parents to approach him and ask what he was feeding his team. “Parents would accuse us of being on steroids,” says Atiba Wade, 28, who swam for Ellis for 11 years before attending the University of Georgia on a swim scholarship. “Things like that were very sobering. But you can never let it diminish your spirit. You don’t let things tear you down.”

That’s a lesson Wade says he learned from Ellis’ tough-love coaching approach. The heat pump at city-run pool where his charges practice at 5 a.m. doesn’t always work. The some of indoor facility’s windows won’t shut, allowing a winter breeze that adds a chill to water that’s already ice cube cold. There’s no state-of-the art weight room or fancy locker room, like some of the more affluent swim programs have.

But Ellis says those factors shouldn’t be a roadblock from succeeding — in or out of the pool. “He’s tough, but not a brutal taskmaster,” says Wade who interrupted his training schedule for the 2008 Olympic team trials to swim as body double for actor Kevin Phillips, III in the movie. “He encourages you, doesn’t want you to quit. Jim sets the bar at an Olympic standard, at a world-class standard.”

Ellis caught the attention of Hollywood after a writer read a profile about him in The New York Times five years ago and approached the coach about writing his life story. Ellis agreed, but thought nothing of it at the time. “He sent me stuff. I read it and threw it in the trash, he sent some more, threw it in the trash,” Ellis recalls. “Then he sent me a contract. After that, things happened within a year.”

Lionsgate films got interested in the story and sought A-list stars like Howard, who earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing a drug-dealing pimp-turned rap artist in “Hustle & Flow,” to be in the film.

“He’s a bright young man, energetic and very intense,” Ellis says of Howard. “He hung out for about a month before the shoot, hanging out with the kids. I don’t how he picked up so much about me.” The glory years of the PDR team have past, Ellis admits. A program that boasted 150 people at its peak is now down to about 40 kids. Ellis continues his hard-charging ways though, barking stroke combination and times from the slippery deck of the pool. He’s hoping that the upcoming movie will produce a renaissance in his program and maybe, just maybe, persuade some generous entrepreneurs to help build a world-class training facility to teach minorities to swim for fun and competition.

“If you gave me what some of the country clubs have what the established white teams have, we’d put someone in the Olympics,” he says with a competitive glint in his eye.

 Myths, stereotypes, and misconceptions are hard to shake, but folks in Philadelphia are showing that they’re up to that task. They’ve got  game – no matter what game it is. 

 

 

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Eddie Joseph, spreading the gospel of ice hockey in soccer-mad Great Britain

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

" Lee Valley Lions, Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, Hockey is for Everyone, Ice Hockey in Harlem, Wayne Gretzky

Being a black ice hockey player in Great Britain in the 1980s wasn’t exactly a walk in Hyde Park. Eddie Joseph can attest to that.

“I went to a place called Sunderland, near New Castle, I remember walking into the ice rink in Sunderland and a 10-11 year old little kid came up to me, rubbed my hand and said ‘Oh, it doesn’t come off,’  recalled Joseph, who played semi-pro hockey for the London Rangers and Lee Valley Lions. “That’s what the country was like. There were parts of this country where there were no black people at all.”

Times have changed in Great Britain, along with population demographics and

From player to coach, Eddie Joseph pays it forward with Lee Valley club.

From player to coach, Eddie Joseph pays it forward with Lee Valley club.

attitudes. When Joseph takes the racially and ethnically diverse East London youth hockey teams that he coaches on road games today people barely bat an eye.

“When I was playing, this country was very different – I was racially abused,” Joseph told me recently. “Today, it just doesn’t happen. People are so much more enlightened.”

Joseph didn’t envision it when he retired from semi-pro hockey at the age of 32, but he’s a hockey lifer. When he’s not carrying a night stick as a London Metropolitan police sergeant, Joseph is holding a hockey stick and coaching kids ages 10 to 18 and teaching them to love a sport that he says he owes everything to.

“It’s my passion,” said Joseph, 52. “Hockey has been the most constant thing in my life. I don’t know why the game bit me as it did, but it did.”

Joseph just wishes more folks on his side of the pond felt the same way. In the land of Big Ben, fish & chips, and One Direction, ice hockey is obscured by the large shadows cast by soccer, cricket, rugby, field hockey and tennis.

“To say it’s a minority sport is overplaying the word minority,” Joseph told me recently. “It’s such a small game in this country.”

Eddie Joseph, left, hopes his players grow up to teach their kids ice hockey.

Eddie Joseph, left, hopes his players grow up to teach their kids ice hockey.

With a population of nearly 64 million people, Great Britain has only 6,798 ice hockey players, according to International Ice Hockey Federation statistics. Of that group, 2,289 are men, 3,815 are junior players, and only 694 are female.

The IIHF ranks the country 22nd in the world in men’s hockey and 18th in women’s hockey. An IIHF founding member in 1908, Great Britain used to be a beast in ice hockey. Team Great Britain captured a Bronze Medal at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, a Gold at the 1936 games in Germany, and experienced international success with teams comprised mostly of Canadian-born players

But as Canada gained independence from the monarchy, Great Britain’s hockey prowess faded. It hasn’t had an ice hockey team in the Winter Games since 1952.

When Brits do think ice, most of them think figure skating, Joseph said. Robin Cousins, Tim Curry and the pairs team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean brought Olympic Gold and notoriety to the country in recent decades.

“Ice rinks aren’t necessarily ice hockey-friendly,” Joseph said. “Figure skating is more popular here than ice hockey because over the years we’ve had success at that sport. Whereas with ice hockey it’s ‘What is it, who is it?'”

But that hasn’t stopped Joseph from preaching the gospel of hockey in his East London community and around the country.

Joseph returned to hockey when his son, then 10, said he wanted to play the game. Joseph went to the Lee Valley where his hockey odyssey began only to discover that the game was no longer played there.

“Hockey had pretty much died at the ice rink,” Joseph recalled. “I was fortunate that when I went back to the rink I met a lady there who was one of the rink directors. She said ‘Hockey would be a great idea.’ The rink manager wasn’t very keen, but she was one of the directors of the company that runs the facility.”

After receiving coaching training, Joseph started a hockey program with about 15 children once a week. Today, Lee Valley has about 125 hockey players spread over five youth teams and an adult squad.

About 25 percent of the players are minority – black, Asian, Arab and Jewish, Joseph said.

Eddie Joseph, standing center, instructs some of Lee Valley's young players.

Eddie Joseph, standing center, instructs some of Lee Valley’s young players.

The hockey program draws many of its patrons from the East London/Hackney area, historically one of London’s poorest communities. Spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on hockey equipment and ice time isn’t the first priority for most families in the neighborhood.

So the Lee Valley rink does what U.S. programs like New York’s Ice Hockey in Harlem, Washington’s Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, Philadelphia’s Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and other non-profit NHL-affiliated “Hockey is For Everyone” organizations do and minimize the cost of the game for those interested in playing it.

“The people that walk through our door and want to give hockey a go can’t afford to buy the kit, can’t afford to buy skates,” Joseph said. “So what we, people with a like mind to myself, do is we’ve done fund-raisers, we’ve bought equipment so we can just say to kids ‘Here you go, you can borrow this from us.’ I think it doesn’t necessarily go down well with our hockey establishment here, but we are more akin to a charity than we are to an ice hockey club.”

Lee Valley youngsters against a team from Slough.

Lee Valley youngsters against a team from Slough.

Joseph can identify with the needy patrons. He was a 14 year-old boy in the rough-and-tumble neighborhood when he and some mates walked into the Lee Valley rink, saw hockey, and were instantly captivated by a sport they never knew existed.

“I grew up in one of the worst parts of London, if not the country. I had friends who were killed, friends who were in prison – it was that kind of area,” he told me. “And for some reason, they put an ice rink up in this place. It gave me something other than hanging around the streets. In my circles, I got to see our country playing hockey. It gave me a sense of pride, gave me some value, some worth.”

No one confused Joseph for the next Wayne Gretzky. Between 1984 and 1993, Joseph tallied 54 goals, 68 assists and racked up 271 penalty minutes.

“I was never a great hockey player, but I served a purpose on the team and they signed me up every year,” he said. “Yeah, I got a bit of a reputation for being a scrapper, nonetheless I wanted to play hockey.”

He hopes the rest of Great Britain will, too, someday soon.

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