(GIVE) BACK TO THE FUTURE

On Friday, April 11, at the Colorado Sports Center in Monument and the Tour Inline Hockey Arena in Colorado Springs, about 75 young inline hockey players ranging in age from about 5 to 17 participated in two “Mission Hockey College” sessions. The events, designed to teach young players inline hockey skills and to give them an idea of their opportunities in the sport as they grow older, also gave National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association players an opportunity to teach and mentor kids.

 

“It’s win-win-win all across the board – for the rinks, for the youth players and for the college players,” said Nanette Houser, the director of marketing for the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association. Houser directed the event along with Towson University Coach Kevin Murphy and Dave Reskey, the roller promotions director for Mission Itech.

 

“The Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association created the idea a few years ago with Kevin Murphy and Rebecca Breitel,” Houser said. “The idea was to give back to the youth of the facilities that the collegiate athletes were playing in, and as a way to involve the college guys with some of the youth players. It kind of came to a standstill, as there was no one to take it and to develop it. When I found out about the concept, I knew that it was exactly what we were going to have to start putting an effort into, and it grew tremendously throughout the ECRHA.”

 

“Fortunately, we were able to bring the concept to our current sponsor, Mission Itech, and they were really excited to hear about what we were doing. They jumped on board immediately with sponsorship, and we’ve taken it national, with almost all of the NCRHA regions incorporating it into their programs as well.”

 

 “The Mission Hockey College was a great success once again,” Reskey said. “We had about 50 kids at the first session at the Colorado Sports Center and about 25 kids at the second session at the Tour Inline Hockey Arena. It was a great turnout. We also did a Mission Hockey College in Irvine two weeks ago and had 60 kids. It’s a great event and we support it 100 percent. We’re focusing on the grassroots and the youth that perhaps can’t afford to come to a camp, this is an opportunity for them. It also gives exposure to the NCRHA and offers a great value, and great entertainment, and a future for the young ones. I was pretty impressed to see West Chester come out and it looks like they had a good time; it was great to see some smiles and laughing. It was great to see the Towson guys out there, too, participating and smiling, especially after their defeat this afternoon.”

 

“We just want to make sure that people know that college roller hockey exists, and that these youth players can continue playing throughout their high school years and straight into college,” Houser said.

 

Caleb Laurence, about 6 years old, said that he had a great time at the event. “My dad told me about it,” Caleb said. “I thought it was really fun. The skating and shooting; the people were really nice.”

 

Caleb’s older brother, Tanner, agreed. “My favorite part was the shooting. The skating was good, too. I thought the college players were really good players and were really nice. It makes me want to go to college and play roller hockey.”