Having fun while building skills is the name of the game at Mike Wilson’s Sharpen Your Skills and Rookie Hockey programs running this week.
“Kids still want to come and have fun and play hockey, said Wilson.
“As long as they’re doing that they’re going to keep playing all their lives. You don’t want to burn kids out.”
A Grade 7 teacher at the LCSS Columneetza campus, Wilson said the program, which has been running for the past “12 or 13 years,” is also a great way for players to get back into routine just before school.
“This is probably the most normal thing you guys have done all summer,” Wilson told participants at the start of the class Monday.
“This time next week we’ll all be back in school sitting at our desks so let’s have some fun.”
Wilson was assisted in his coaching efforts by hockey dad and coach Rick Skerry, fellow teacher and coach Tanner Gainer and former hockey students Dylan Telford, Finley Enns and Lucas Chipman.
“There’s never a shortage of volunteers who want to come help to out,” he said, adding it’s fun to watch the children grow up.
“It’s pretty cool to see.”
After every session participants are given a set of hockey cards for their efforts out of Wilson’s own personal collection.
“I’ve been trying to give away hockey cards for years,” he said of having about a million cards. “It hasn’t made a dent.”
