A free hockey clinic for South Asian youth at the 黑马磁力 Events Centre on Sunday drew well over 200 participants, based on pre-registration figures released by organizers.
Organizer Robin Dhir said the whole event was put together 鈥渓iterally in a week鈥� to be one of the lead-ups to the world junior hockey championships later this month.
鈥淚 figured, let鈥檚 do something that would be an opportunity for the South Asian community,鈥� Dhir said.
鈥淪ome of them [the kids] have never had skates on before.鈥�
Riley Wiwchar of Hockey Canada called it a 鈥渘o-brainer.鈥�
鈥淭he chance to get kids on the ice that have never played hockey before is kind of the Hockey Canada mandate,鈥� Wiwchar said.
Wiwchar said Hockey Canada is interested in operating similar programs in the future.
鈥淗opefully, this is something we can use going forward,鈥� he said.
READ MORE:
Not all the participants were inexperienced.
Among the kids on the ice were Jovin Pagely and Dylshaan Kajla from Cloverdale, who play together on a minor team.
Pagely said he likes the game because it鈥檚 鈥渋ntense鈥� and played on skates, while Kajla said he was looking forward to skating with top-ranked South Asian players like Harkirat Gill of the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds, Jordan Sandhu, who plays for Arizona State and Manraj Haye, who plays for the UBC Thunderbirds.
鈥淛ust getting to know them, what they鈥檝e done,鈥� Kajla said.
Pagely came by his love of hockey by the direct route. His father Jesse is a former BCHL player who spent time on the Cowichan team.
The LEC event was sponsored by Hockey Canada, Canadian Tire and Telus, in cooperation with Kids Play Foundation.
Apna Hockey, a South Asian community-based hockey school,provided skating, hockey skills and off-ice training clinics to youth.
More photos from the day can be viewed .
The 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship takes place in Vancouver and Victoria from December 26th to January 5th, 2019.
