That\u2019s exactly what he did, getting eight of Lucas\u2019 friends and making the three-hour drive from the Tampa area to play on Sunday.<\/p>\n
But this was more than a one-day passion for Bradley, who runs the Manatee Ball Hockey League in Manatee County, Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up starting the program for my son when he was 5,\u201d he said. \u201cHe loves hockey and he really wanted to play with kids his own age, but he just wasn’t there on skates yet. So, I figured he can\u2019t be the only kid that\u2019s not quite there on skates or maybe doesn\u2019t have the financial capability to play ice hockey or whatever else, so we started the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Lucas and his friends were ball hockey veterans, more than 350 students from four SLAM schools in the area were introduced to street hockey this week.<\/p>\n
SLAM (Sports Leadership and Management) schools are tuition-free charters schools, with 15 of them in five states — Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona and Nevada. Founded by rapper Pitbull, about 92 percent of each school\u2019s population comes from low-income families.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt SLAM Miami on Tuesday, they did a pep rally where they had four different stations of what street hockey is like,\u201d said Rocio Diaz, the direction of community relations for SLAM Foundation. \u201cThe excitement in the room, the emotion in the room, it was phenomenal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come from a low-income family, driving 22 miles to go to an ice rink is just not something that\u2019s happening, so this is just something that really brings the community together. We have four different SLAM schools here today from Miami, North, Boca and Palm Beach, so they are getting to compete against each other, which helps them realize we\u2019re a part of something bigger than just a 2000-student school. So, it really makes a difference for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SLAM school in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami will play a role at the Winter Classic. The auxiliary synthetic rink that will be part of the field display for the outdoor game at the home of the Miami Marlins will then be donated to that charter school after the game.<\/p>\n
Rob Knesaurek, NHL senior vice president, youth development and industry growth, said a synthetic rink is perfect for kids learning to play the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle maintenance, it\u2019s a lot less expensive (than ice) and you can play anywhere, Knesaurek said. \u201cYou can play street hockey on it as well. You give the kids the appetite of playing hockey in weather like this. We\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giving kids the appetite for the sport was a big motivation of the event Sunday, in addition to raising funds for the fight against cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt introduces our sport to many, many, many kids that I know personally have never played the sport,\u201d Knesaurek said. \u201cSo, to put sticks in hands and watch kids over here playing street hockey and enjoying themselves, we\u2019re proudest of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many roads to fandom, and I think if we can put sticks in their hands and create some dexterity and love for playing, then there is a great appetite to want to try skating, right? But why wouldn\u2019t you want to try and connect with young kids doing some fun things, and street hockey just seems to be the easier route.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That\u2019s exactly what he did, getting eight of Lucas\u2019 friends and making the three-hour drive from the Tampa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-360612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}