Hockey on the Ground 'Floor'

When Kraken TV analyst JT Brown decided to retire from professional hockey to call Seattle's inaugural season alongside play-by-play announcer John Forslund, the former NHL forward had more than a second career in mind.
"I can't wait to immerse myself in helping the franchise to provide greater access to hockey for youth players and all fans," says Brown. "I'm excited to be on the ground floor in the community and at the training center's three rinks when time permits."

During the week of the recent NHL Expansion Draft, Brown was in town for the live fan event at Gas Works Park. He made sure to find the time to attend a "floor ball" camp session at Fairwood Elementary School in Renton as part of summertime "Multi-Sport and Hockey Sampler Program" for underserved and BIPOC youth presented by YMCA of Greater Seattle and the Kraken.
Brown joined Kyle Boyd, Kraken director for fan development, to teach the opening floor ball class of the camp. Boyd stood in front the assembled campers and asked if they knew what "NHL" stood for. It required a couple tries but one girl soon offered "National Hockey League."

"Our special guest today is JT Brown," says Boyd. "He played the sport of hockey at the highest level."
Each introductory floor ball class-part of an impressive and thorough curriculum developed by Boyd, a former high school teacher here in Seattle-formally starts with a safety talk. It's all about not raising the stick above the shoulders, not swinging it at another player, the stick's purpose is to get control of the puck, pass the puck, shoot the puck.
"I gave my four-year-old [daughter] that talk a few times," says Brown, smiling.
Boyd has been introducing floor ball and the sport of hockey on ice to kids across the region during the last two-plus years. When he moves on from the safety advice (there are always a few reminders as activity starts), it is no more than 10 to 12 minutes before boys and girls are stickhandling their individual balls with impressive control. It's remarkable when you consider most of these children have never tried the sport before.

Neema, Marian and Camille were three such children. They were joshing with each other before the floor ball intro but taking it seriously during the stickhandling drill. Later, they were moving swiftly during a spirited breakout games portion of the class.
"It's fun," says Neema, who didn't seem to stop smiling the whole hour and quickly looked like a natural with the stick and ball and passing movements. "I like it."
"During scrimmages, one of the female campers [Camille], who had never played before, came up to me super excited about how she scored a goal," says Tina Vincent, program executive for youth sports and wellness for YMCA of Greater Seattle. "It was touching to see her so confident in something she just learned."
Before the breakout games, a taller boy asks Brown how to know if you are a right-handed or left-handed player (which translates to a righty having the right hand lower on the stick shaft and vice versa for the lefthander, and in either case the hands are separated, not close together as is standard to swing a golf club or bat).

"That's actually a trick question," says Brown, who played seven NHL seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks and his hometown Minnesota Wild. "Whatever is comfortable is what's best for you as a player."
Boyd demonstrates how to move the ball (and, on ice, the puck) back and forth with the stick blade, not altogether different than a soccer player "dribbling" the ball with the feet. Boyd asks the kids to count how many times they can move the puck back-and-forth on their stick blades.
The counting commences with Brown taking it seriously with clean, fast stickhandling (earlier he was juggling the ball in the air flawlessly with the kid-size stick). Boyd asks for numbers on the stickhandling drill. Hands go up. The answers: "45 ... 55 ... 55 ... 90 [a few kids glance toward the boy making the announcement] ... 32 ... 47 ... 38 ... 45."
Boyd doesn't see it at first-he's focused on the kids--but his Kraken colleague in the back-back row is vigorously raising his hand to report his count. Boyd finally noticed and asks, "JT?"

The reply is "120." Groans from the kids and instant agreement when Boyd asks if the students want to try again, to see if they can top Brown.
The summer program spanned four weeks and included floor ball sessions each week along with twice-weekly visits to the nearby Sno-King Ice in Renton. For many of the kids (K through 5th grade) the camp offered first times to lace up and maneuver on a pair of skates.
YMCA of Greater Seattle held camps at four locations (Fairwood Elementary, Chase Lake Elementary School in Edmonds, Auburn Valley YMCA and Bellevue Family YMCA) serving 20 campers at each location weekly. Campers learned basic skills of ball hockey throughout the week and participated in other healthy activities.
They also visited a local ice rink two times during the week, the YMCA partnering with Renton's Sno-King ice, plus Kent Valley Ice Centre in Kent, Olympic View Arena in Mountlake Terrace and Sno-King Ice Kirkland.

"The best part was seeing the youth who were nervous or scared conquer that fear and get on the ice," says Vincent. "Staff and volunteers from the Y, Kraken and the local ice rinks were amazing, making the youth feel comfortable in trying something new.
"When it was time to leave, the campers just wanted to know when we were coming back. They were having a blast.
The Kraken intends to support growing the sport across the Seattle area and the entire region. Part of NHL team's vision is helping rinks and youth hockey associations to build relationships with youth programming organizations.
Vincent said YMCA of Greater Seattle is planning to launch a floor ball program across its Y's in the Seattle area: "We are offering several classes in the fall for ages 5 to 16 and we already have youth signed up."

The Boys & Girls Clubs of King County and Seattle Parks and Recreation are planning similar programming using the Kraken curriculum, which mixes hockey lessons (moving with the ball, passing to teammates, how to shoot accurately and more) with even more vital building blocks of socializing with others (being good teammates) and physical well-being for all kids.
"Each of those organizations are really good at planning the next activity once the kids learn the sport," says Boyd. "Even if it is not a full-blown league at first, it might be a tournament over the holidays or regular day for floor ball games.
The Kraken's philanthropic arm, One Roof Foundation, features three pillars to its mission. One is increased youth access to hockey by "breaking down all barriers to all forms of hockey" and "leveraging the team's resources to create access and opportunity in hockey and life for marginalized and BIPOC youth and communities," according to its website (find out how you can support the effort at
https://onerooffoundation.org/
).
"The goal for us and our partner organizations is get kids out playing hockey in some form," says Boyd. "The floor ball programming is a great place to start. It helps the kids to not be intimidated by the equipment or the sport, plus learn the safety part of it. It's not a one-time thing, we want to provide the opportunity to play regularly."