DETROIT – Ask any parent with a child who plays youth hockey, and you will likely hear one word a lot: expensive, as the cost piles up quickly from equipment to ice time, but not at Detroit PAL because their goal is to make hockey open to everyone.
Hockey is a sport with unquestionable popularity in the city that’s home to Hockeytown, as the hockey-playing population in Detroit continues to grow.
“Hockey is for everyone,” said Detroit PAL volunteer coach Adrienne Bray.
After decades without it, Detroit’s Police Athletic League re-started its Great Skate Youth Hockey program, connecting kids to the game to create community.
“This is by far the most rewarding for me, personally, to see the joy
on the parent’s faces and the kids’ faces,” said Detroit PAL hockey organizer officer Marcus Norwood. “We’re bringing families together while building those bonds between police officers and our community and our young citizens.”
In partnership with the NHL Players Association, PAL helps to provide everything from skates to sticks.
“I want every kid to participate in as many activities as they can and cost not be a major barrier,” Norwood said.
PAL has brought 150 kids in three years, and they’re opening the door to opportunities for diversity.
“It deserves diversity,” Bray said. “It deserves to be as colorful as our world is, and so it’s very important for me to bring that diversity to hockey.”
“I want to be a hockey player when I grow up because my favorite thing to do is skate,” said Isaiah Joseph.
PAL is doing their part to produce a new generation of skaters in which parent Meagan Dunn got her son involved.
“Being able to learn the foundations of hockey with volunteers and coaches that reflect the community that they live in was very important to our family,” said Dunn. “No child gets left behind on the ice, off the ice, so that they all are learning the sport together.”
The program features “Learn to play” and “Learn to skate” groups, which help everyone find their footing at the rink.
“My goal is for everyone I come in contact with to fall in love with hockey,” Bray said. “And so no matter where you are, we’re going to make sure that you want to come back.”
The goal is to have kids sharpen their skills on skates with lessons that go beyond the ice.
“Hockey is a very difficult sport to do,” Norwood said. “Doing something that’s hard doesn’t mean that you can’t try it, right, because things are going to be hard in life. So just because it’s easy doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t do it, so challenge yourself.”
Click here if you would like to get your child involved in the program.